Cynicism setting in (updated)

I realize that it’s been a while since I’ve done a writing craft or industry post. This is because, over the last few months, I’ve been feeling a growing sense of cynicism about whether such posts serve any real purpose. This is a combination, I suppose, of three things:

1) the sense that I’m preaching to the choir (i.e., anyone who really has an interest in improving their writing career and researching the industry is already reading blogs like mine and the many, many well-run industry blogs out there, they already have TNH’s Slushkiller entry bookmarked, they visit Miss Snark daily with their saltshaker in hand, they understand exactly what an agent’s job is (and that it’s not just to sell a book to a publisher), they know what a scam agent is, they do not think of agents as evil gatekeepers…).

2) I keep getting the impression that a bunch of people simply want me and everyone like me to shut the fuck up, since we’re published and therefore, it’s “easy” for us to say that a particular agent is a bad idea, or a particular self-publishing model won’t work and here’s why, or that in general, the reason we’re so skeptical about whatever fool thing they’re trying is because we’re jealous and elite and we want to keep the riff raff out. Please. Have we met? I *so* want the riff raff in. I love me some riff raff. (And let’s not even get into the ridiculous debate about all the stuff that’s supposed to be “easy” for published writers and is not at all. Again with the preaching to the choir, but getting published is like levelling up on a video game.
You’re the same character as you were before when you were at the top of the last level, you’re just playing in a much much harder field that requires skills and weaponry you haven’t earned yet.

3) Sometimes people are listening without listening. “Scam agents suck,” they agree, while writing out their checks. “No agent is better than a bad agent,” they say, nodding emphatically, while justifying the fact that their agent won’t return their calls, forward their rejection letters, or whatever other sketchy behavior is going on. Which is frustrating.

Updated to add: I just thought of a fourth reason, thanks to Robin. I think I’ve already talked about everything I can talk about — publishers, genre, myths, misconceptions, bad advice, good advice gone bad, you name it. And if I haven’t, someone else has, and often better than I can. The journalist in me likes to break the new stories. 😉

So, am I a glutton for punishment or what? Because I keep pressing forward, posting things, glad whenever someone tells me that something I said helped them.