Hit 200k words on the first draft of my first book, epic fantasy - had some questions

The thing is, few people get their first book published, and few people get the first book they query publish. You really need to do a lot of research into how the publishing industry works and how books are sold, because you need to be in a much different mindset to what you are here before agents and publishers will look seriously at your work.

It's not impossible to get a large book published -- but you do have to show you can write a good book first, and you then need to think of your work as a commercial product that other people need to buy, to make either your investment (as a self-publisher) or someone else's (as trade-published) worthwhile.

You can't just chuck this out and expect it to be bought without having done that research and development in mindset first. It's hard to get an agent to look at a book of 120k words seriously, and to get them to look at your 200k+ first book it has to be spectacular.

Publishing is a business, not a 'Make a Wish' institution for authors. You need a professional mindset -- but the good news is, the more you read up about publishing from an industry perspective. Read agent blogs, read forums like Absolute Write, read industry sites like Writers Digest. Don't just try to get us or the existence of other books to validate what you want out of this. Be prepared to learn and absorb advice, for a few more years spent learning how to write good but shorter novels, and to understand the pro mindset.

Then you can start querying. But right now, you really don't look like you're ready for what authorship actually requires from you -- and that's going to be an instant form rejection right there.

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