If you aren't willing to do all of this research, you won't get anywhere. Editors are almost inevitably overworked and underpaid, and a lot of them will just throw out anything that doesn't conform to their requirements. All of this information is already out there. Most if not all of it is available for free on the web. The rest you can buy magazines or books on.
Writers are very chatty folk.
They may not have time to answer individually every email they get, but they love to talk about their work in general. Cruise the web a bit and you'll find answers to pretty much all of your questions. If you can't handle or aren't willing to undertake this initial research, then you might want to think about a different field of work. If the initial market research is too daunting, then imagine how daunting the research for your projects will be. Getting Started All that said, it can be very daunting to face a new career without knowing a lot about what it involves.