Today, I finished the first edit on my fantasy noir detective novel, Shadow's Ascendance (the title of this blog is my word count), and sent it out to my 3 beta readers. If you don't know, a beta reader is someone you trust to read the novel, to help spot any mistakes or grammar errors, and to give you constructive criticism. It's also someone you trust not to take your novel and to try and release it themselves under another name or with a different title (it's sad but true, I've known a couple of people that this happened to).
I'm very excited, since I truly believe this novel will be the one that gets me picked up by a publisher. Yes, I know that I've self-published my 1st novel, Arcanist's Lament, and I will be self-publishing my 2nd one as well. I've had about 40 or 50 sales altogether either through e-readers or physical copies, which isn't bad since September. However, since this is what I want to do for a living, those kinds of numbers are not what I need to have. Hence, going after a publisher.
Pursuing your dreams, especially if they are art-related (and yes, I do consider writing an art), can be tough. It requires dedication, drive, determination, and above all else, luck. I have until the end of June for this to take off; that will be just over a year, which is the time frame I gave myself. Then, I will have no choice but to find a job, which I know will kill me inside. After doing what you love for a year, going back to that grind is going to be soul-crushing.
Which is why I'm hoping that this one is the one that gets me picked up. But, as someone reminded me, just because you have a dream and just because you have talent and determination, doesn't mean you get to have it. The world is filled with people who either didn't believe in their dream enough to pursue it or those who tried and failed. I just have to hope that I'm not one of them. Happy Friday to all, and I hope everyone reading this has an amazing weekend!