What do I do with this story?

Scandal665

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I've written a novella, a prequel to the novel I hope to start querying for beginning in March. The Novella has been edited, critiqued and is ready to go out into the world. My CP's enjoyed the story, it's a good stand alone, but also leads into the novel and shows how the main characters met and worked together for the first time.

Here's the issue: I'm stuck with where to proceed. If I'm hoping to traditionally publish the novel (I know the odds, but I'm still going to try) to I sit on this novella for a while? Or should I consider self-publishing the novella and working to promote it? Good sales, and building a reader base and all that would be my goal for self-publishing it.

I'm at a complete loss with how to proceed! Thank you for any advice or comments in advance.
 

Old Hack

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Focus on one thing at a time.

I would probably look for an agent to represent the novel, and then once I had an agent and a publishing contract, talk to my agent about the novella and see what she thought best.
 

Denevius

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The odds of self-publishing leading to good sales is very low.

If you really hustled in promoting yourself, you can make some contacts in the online publishing world, but the odds of generating a fan base isn’t that much higher than the odds of having good sales.

So you *can* self-publish, or you can get it published by a small press. Afterwards, just start working on your next project and don’t be overly concerned with sales and fan bases. These things only come in time for all but the most lucky of individuals.