Purpose

I've written a novel. A 75,000 word novel, to be exact. But like most novelists, I'm having trouble getting it published, and therefore having trouble finding an audience.

For those who don't know how the publishing industry currently works, a quick primer is necessary. First and foremost, you need an agent. Generally speaking, unsolicited and unagented material gets thrown away at the major publishing houses. As a result, agents are inundated with business. As a result of this, most of them only take query letters.

What's a query letter, you might ask? That's a good question.

A query letter is one in which you summarize your novel's plot and let them know that if they're interested, you can send more.

So, in essence, they judge your novel without ever having seen a word of it. The judgment is made on material alone. This, to me at least, makes no sense. Hemingway wrote about a man and a fish- not exactly exciting stuff at times, but his brilliant prose made it work. Now I'll readily admit that I'm no Hemingway, but my point is that it's how the material examines the human heart that's important, not how spectacular said material is. By the same token, one could write a story about a giant asteroid colliding toward the earth that makes the reader want to fall asleep.

So I've decided to publish my novel online. I'll post a chapter every few days. I eagerly solicit your comments and reviews, no matter how sharp or biting they may be. Since it's my first effort, it's laced with tinges of idealism- and I tended to mince words and make my meanings too obtuse without clouding them in symbolism. So trust me- I know it's not perfect; however, I'm still pretty proud of it.