...ever seemed like a cool kids' club to which you never received the proper password and secret handshake, that's because it is.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. If anything, it's more entertaining this way.  And besides, that feeling of 'clubbiness' could be seen as one of the fringe benefits of the job, something that helps ease their qualms (many of them have very marketable degrees) about what they're passing up on in terms of salary and the like by becoming a professional writer.