Feeling directionless? Is my novel ready for editing and self-publishing?

Has anyone else looked at your manuscript? Like other writers? Having feedback from someone else is very helpful and can help you figure out what issues you might be having.

Congratulations on having reached the end of early-drafting, at least - a lot of people never get there! It does sound, though, as though there is still some work (perhaps polishing, but perhaps structural) to be done.

Try not to rush into a publish-or-trunk frame of mind. You've worked hard to get this far - honour the work by keeping faith with the novel itself.

And although self-publishing might be the way to go if a novel has a small readership, it's definitely not a good response to hearing that there's still work to be done.

Maybe put it aside for a little while, and then get extra eyes on it.

Personally, I think you've skipped a step in the process in that, if you're not getting bites from agents you should:

a.) Get your query letter critiqued--writing one is a skill that has to be learned and it can make a big difference. There's a forum here for that which has helped many people over the years; as with any Share Your Work forum on AW, you'll need 50 substantive posts to put up your own query. The best way, by far, to get these is by critiquing other people's queries. Do spend some time deep-diving on the stickies as well, as they're jam-packed with resources.

b.) Revise the MS. Thirty agents isn't that many. It depends a bit on genre, but for any of the major genres (including literary) a good list can easily top 100 agents, give or take, and their genre guidelines shouldn't be read too exclusively. You do want to make sure you target the agent(s) who you think would be a good fit, but you don't want to be too exclusive. Aim high, but be open-minded, too.

Resist the urge to jump to self-publishing as a last resort. Self-publishing is its own thing, and there's a forum here full of people who have done it successfully and full of information on how to approach it. General thinking (it's not something I've done myself) is it's a huge amount of work, and better pursued because you want to target a specific market, or want a bit more control of the full process, and such.

The best way to sell one book, either in the trade or as a self-publisher, is usually to write another book.

In terms of editing, this is a good thread on some things to ask an editor. Notice that these questions go well beyond price. EDIT: I realize I just referred you to a copy-editing thread. Here's another one with external links to resources on other types of editing as well.

Again personally, any freelance editor who's making subjective comments about where your book belongs in the market is overstepping professional bounds, and isn't someone I'd trust to edit the book well. Some of this stuff is subjective, and editors are under no obligation to work on any book they don't want to--it may have been this editor was trying to let you down gently--but marketing is marketing and editing is editing. If you're hiring them, it's because they have expertise is the latter.

Remember always that rejection is not a judgment on the work. Just because some agents sent you form rejections or an editor didn't want to take a project on doesn't mean the project is unmarketable or niche or anything like that. It really depends. At some level, you're the one who will know best. Sometimes really great books don't get published. Sometimes people write the wrong book. Sometimes people query too early.

Rather than paying for an editor, it sounds like you might be more in need of a critique partner or beta-reader to help give you some ideas, confidence, and direction. AW has a forum for that, too--again, note you'll need 50 posts. It may just be you need to do another draft or two and really find the core of the story you're trying to tell.

The comment about wattpad may have come from a financial place, from that editor, as some authors in the past have done quite well through wattpad.

See for example:

https://www.booktrust.org.uk/news-a...-to-a-publishing-deal-six-wattpad-sensations/

It doesn't mean the editor thought you weren't 'good enough to self publish' but that she might have been trying to suggest additional possibilities.

The advice upthread is all good, and there are many paths up the typewriter.

There's a great beta-swap sub-forum here (after you have the requisite 50 posts). I just finished a 112k novel, and thanks to betas, I'm already planning a big revision (hopefully I can trim the word count in the process).