Things Shouldn't Be So Hard

This makes me smile. 

I think I'm nearing the completion of my first novel. I don't really know when to stop editing it or when to start sending it off to try and to find a publisher or an agent (I'm obviously floundering). I've slowly made my way through the novel a few times, I'm getting feedback from friends--who are too positive with their comments, and I'm getting sick of working on it. But I know I have to push on. After beginning to research the publishing process, I've quickly become overwhelmed with the idea of selling my novel. Because publishing is not about my lofty aspirations, nor is it about some semi-autobiographical theme in my book; it's about sales. And I don't know if what I've wrote is marketable.

I don't even know if it's good.

Let me say upfront, I know nothing about the publishing process. What I know, I've learned in the last few hours of online research. Something I learned: you don't send your book to publishers or agents, you send a Query Letter. It's a one pages sales pitch for your book. So you've gotta work on you query letter as much as your book because no one will read your book if your query letter sucks. Also, you've gotta research agents and publishers to find one that may be interested in selling to buying your book. You gotta do quite a bit of work, and, oh yeah, you've got about a 98% chance of being turned down. 

I've had my novel for about 7 months; I read stories about people trying to find a publisher for years. I'm not idealist. I didn't think that I would be the next Stephen King, but things shouldn't be so hard. 

Or maybe it should. I don't know. But I will say that writing my novel seems to be a lot less daunting than publishing it.