My novel is unpublished (welcome to the club, right?) I workshopped it through a critique group, submitted to hundreds of agents with just a couple partial requests, and sorta hit a dead end. However, whenever I talk about my book with people (co-workers, acquaintences, strangers...), they all seem really enthusiastic about it and say they'd like to read it. I often have to tell people it's not published but I appreciate their interest. Is there any reason why I shouldn't go nuts and give it to everyone who asks to read it? Could it help me in any way as far as getting it out there in the world? It wouldn't be for sale, but sometimes people can make money off of something that was originally for free, right? (Depending on word of mouth). I guess I kinda want to self-publish but am scared and haven't done enough research on it to know if it'd be the best thing. (But that's another topic in itself - I'm just interested in whether there's a benefit to giving it to people to read).