Publishing Advice

Not having any experience as an author I finished most of my draft and then started looking for a publisher. I googled agents and found the agents professional society that listed their profiles and interests. I started sending letters. Then I met an author on an airplane. He was young but published and he advised that I send out at least two or three  dozen agent queries. After spending some weeks doing this I found a site by an agent that explained the business. It became clear that agents have more opportunities than they can handle so they focus on proven authors, new authors with an existing platform (i.e. they are on TV or the lecture circuit), or promising young authors that have a future of many books. It then became crystal clear that no agent would take on me as I am fit none of those categories. Therefore I decided to go the self publishing route. It's unfortunate that I didn't find advice on this reality earlier; it would have saved much useless effort.