Challenge Accepted?

I read Amazon.com forums when I'm bored.  Because I'm writing a fantasy novel, I tend to spend a lot of time on forums featuring indie and self-published fantasy authors.  (I don't want to self-publish, for reasons outlined in this post, but a lot of people do choose that route.)

And I am just astounded at the number of people who have written fantasy novels and turn to Amazon forums, blogs, etc. to publicize their works.

I suppose it is a little discouraging.  So many people have written books an so few get picked up by major publishers.  And then a lot of stuff that major publishers put out is just crap.  So how do I make my work stand out in this field?  I don't have an answer to that question yet, unfortunately.

However, I've dealt with really bad odds before.  I did get into Harvard, after all.

But, in the end, all I can do is make my manuscript the best it can be, and do lots of research about how to approach publishers and agents, and then send it off and wait.