It might be better to move this discussion to another part of the forums, but until then:
I have already self-published it, I sold a few copies, even got some decent reviews. I was happy with that for a while, but the more I read that publishers scoffed at self-published authors, the more embarrassed I was about what I had done. I thought if it was halfway decent maybe I could use the good press it had gotten being self-published in order to get someone to actually pick it up, but that's not going great either (In hindsight, probably a terrible idea anyway). It's long, it's fantasy, I'm young, completely unpublished, and the process has consequently been soul-crushing.
I think you need to determine what your goal is with this novel. As others have said, six years is not that long in publishing time, and many people spend more than six years on a book.
I don't think publishers "scoff" at self-publisher
authors, though they might be more hesitant to take on a self-published
novel that only got "halfway decent" sales.
But there is a trend for
some publishers to look at self-published novels now (not
a lot, but
some), as long as you still control all the rights (minus first rights, of course).
We also have a
self-publishing section here. Many people there spend far less than $5k to publish their books, and some are doing very well. If you're willing to spend $5k on a vanity press, which most people here agree will not help your book much, if at all, then why not try to "better" self-publish your novel?
But again, all this will depend on what you want to ultimately achieve with your novel.
I'll try to just write a short general fiction next and pretend this never happened XD
All novels are a hard sale. General fiction is no different. Write what you want to write.
Ouch. I know you're probably right though, the reason a lot of books are rejected are because they're just terrible. It's difficult getting over the feeling that mine is one of these, but it is more than possible.
I saved this for last because it really is the hardest thing to hear. Did you have beta readers look at your book (beta readers who are not family or friends or anyone else who would spare your feelings
)?
You can also take a look around
Share Your Work. You can't post until you have 50 post, but you can read around and critique others work. You'd be surprised how often the mistakes pop up, and you can learn to see a lot of problems in your own work by finding them in other people's first.
Also, depending on when in the process you got rejected, you might have been rejected on your query, meaning no one actually read your novel. Have you checked out
Query Letter Hell, or
Queryshark, or any other query source?
Are you also sure you researched all the agents and publishers you submitted to make sure your novel was appropriate for them?
***
But no matter what, I agree with the others, you need to start another project. Sometimes we get too focused on one book and we never move on.
Anyway, take heart, there are members here who have gotten hundreds of rejects before they finally got their publishing contracts.
Good luck.