What Do Writers Want?

People talk about the state of literary fiction today in gloomy terms (Norman Mailer: "The passion readers used to feel for venturing into the serious novel has withered.").

Editors, being gatekeepers, have a very significant role to play. They determine what the reading public sees.

Actually, editors have expressed themselves on what they want -- in articles and interviews in the plethora of magazines for "would-be" writers, in seminars at writers' conferences, etc. But I wonder if they are being honest. When it comes to the Great Unwashed, could the attitude of most editors really be: Do not submit. Your work is not wanted.

What does a writer want? How about this:
They want their story/novel to get a respectful reading by a mature, well-read person who can discriminate between excellent, good, mediocre and bad. And, if he/she decides that the story is excellent it should be published.

Simple as that. Nothing else involved.