mojodragon

I thought about posting this in Tilted Literature, but it isn't really literature. I need to know if anyone has had any experience publishing their work. Here's the story:

My wife wrote a romance novel about a year ago. I've read it, along with my mom, aunts, and grandmother. And some close friends. Anyway, I'm not a fan of romance novels, but I liked this one. I mean, not just "yes, dear, that's nice" kind of like, I'm talking really liked it. We looked into getting it published, but nobody will even let us submit it to them. Nobody takes unsolicited manuscripts. You pretty much have to be a published writer to get published. Catch 22 and all that. We tried Harlequin, but they have a very specific formula for their books, and her's doesn't match their style. To match it, you'd almost have to take an existing Harlequin and change the names. A friend of ours got his book published, but he had to pay for it himself. I think it cost him about $300, and it seems to me that it's not really like getting something published. I mean, anybody with $300 can get anything published, that's not much of an accomplishment. So, does anyone have any advice?