I’m offering a completed ~99,000-word adult art-crime/conspiracy thriller, Velvet Forgery, for acquisition.

Asking price: $11,000 USD.

I’m primarily looking for a serious buyer interested in acquiring a completed fiction property rather than commissioning a manuscript from scratch. Depending on the buyer and intended use, the exact rights transferred can be discussed before an agreement is signed.

The novel

VELVET FORGERY
Adult Art-Crime Thriller / Mystery / Romantic Suspense
Approx. 99,000 words
16 chapters
Complete manuscript

Logline:
When art conservator Livia Sorrento discovers a pigment too modern for a supposedly priceless masterwork, she and the unnervingly perceptive Caspian Vale uncover a system in which museums, insurers, auction houses and private lenders have spent years allowing forged works to remain “authentic” because too much money depends on the lie. Buried beneath the fraud is something more personal: evidence left by Livia’s dead mother.

The story moves through conservation laboratories, auction houses, museum boardrooms, Paris pigment dealers, a Geneva freeport and Venetian archives as apparently isolated irregularities begin forming one financial system.

The central conspiracy is not simply about criminals selling fake paintings. The underlying mechanism is that authentication itself has become economically necessary: paintings are being used as collateral, and acknowledging that key works are fraudulent would jeopardize loans, valuations, insurance reserves and institutional reputations.

The manuscript combines:

• forensic art conservation and authentication;
• XRF analysis, infrared reflectography and dendrochronology;
• provenance manipulation;
• auction guarantees and institutional conflicts;
• freeport storage and art-backed collateral;
• murder / intimidation;
• museum and insurance corruption;
• a family mystery involving the protagonist’s dead mother;
• and a slow-burn relationship built around professional trust rather than a conventional rescue romance.

Short premise

Livia initially believes she is investigating one impossible pigment.

She eventually discovers that the real fraud is much larger: respected institutions have created a chain of mutually reinforcing authentication in which museums rely on insurers, insurers rely on catalogue opinions, lenders rely on all of them, and everyone has a financial reason not to ask whether the underlying artwork is genuine.

The conspiracy has survived because no participant needs to control the entire system.

By the final act, the investigation has moved from identifying a forged canvas to proving that the right fake only needs to be “real” in the right document at the right moment.

The emotional thread runs alongside the investigation. Livia discovers that her mother Elena was neither simply innocent nor simply responsible: she participated in parts of the system while secretly leaving physical witness marks beneath altered paintings so the fraud could someday be demonstrated.

What I am selling

I am looking for a buyer for the completed manuscript and an agreed rights package.

I am open to discussing structures such as:

• acquisition of the manuscript;
• exclusive publishing rights;
• broader IP rights;
• adaptation/development rights;
• pen-name or credited-author arrangements;
• revisions requested as part of the acquisition;
• or a negotiated combination of the above.

I will not represent rights as transferred until we have a written agreement specifying exactly what the buyer is purchasing.

Asking price: $11,000 USD.

I’m willing to discuss reasonable offers from serious buyers, particularly publishers, fiction studios, content companies, book packagers, producers, established authors looking for an acquisition, or individuals with a concrete commercialization plan.

Available for due diligence

For serious inquiries I can provide:

• opening chapters/sample;
• full synopsis;
• chapter-by-chapter outline;
• character overview;
• complete manuscript for qualified buyers;
• word-count/manuscript information;
• and discussion of the proposed rights transfer.

Payment and transfer would be handled through a written agreement rather than an informal Reddit transaction.

If interested, DM me with who you are, what you intend to do with the manuscript, and which rights you would want to acquire.

I’m happy to answer substantive questions in the comments as well.

I'm a college student who recently finished a romance novel after spending months working on it.

The writing process was difficult but enjoyable. What I've discovered is that I struggle much more with everything that comes after the manuscript is finished. Marketing, building an audience, social media, advertising, cover design, launch strategies, newsletters, and all the business aspects of publishing feel overwhelming to me.

Part of my situation is financial. College tuition is a significant expense, and I don't have much money available to invest in editing, cover design, advertising, or other publishing costs.

I'm trying to decide between three options:

1. Attempt self-publishing despite having little marketing knowledge.
2. Query agents and pursue traditional publishing.
3. Try to find a way to sell or license the manuscript to someone better equipped to publish and market it.

One possibility I've considered is transferring the rights to someone else who is better equipped to publish and market the book, though I have no idea how common or realistic that is for an unpublished author.

For those who have been in a similar position, what would you do?

Have any of you reached the point where you realized you enjoyed writing but not the publishing side of the process? If so, how did you handle it?

I'm looking for honest advice from people with experience rather than encouragement. If one of these paths is clearly unrealistic for a first-time author, I'd rather hear that now than spend months going in the wrong direction.

Before I explain my situation and share my story there’s something I would like to share about myself. I have been single my entire life and I don’t know what it is like to be in a relationship. I know what it is like to have strong feelings for someone and I know how it feels when they don’t feel the same about you. I also have a tendency to get attached beyond all rationality and sense. I end up looking like a simp and a fool in front of the girl which is why I guess I have never been able to make things work despite being “very polite,” “sweet” and “caring” by their definitions. I’m also sharing this story here because I know she doesn’t have Reddit nor the patience to read something so long and detailed. Around Christmas, my friends and I sit down and discuss how I must move on from my old crush and find someone new otherwise I’ll end up falling for someone at the place where I’m about to start a new job. I mocked them for their stupid conclusions and told them I’m firm and certain that I’ll be fine and end my training without falling for someone and quietly head off to pursue my further studies.

So here’s the story:

New years, I start a new position as a SWE Trainee at a tech firm where I run into “K”. At first we were introduced to each other by a common colleague of ours “P” who happened to be a very good friend of K. There’s a crazy twist with respect to P and K which I’ll tell later but basically he introduced us because we have the same cultural background. At first I avoided her because she was too chatty and seemed very extroverted for my liking and was continuously yapping. Later when P told K that she and I shared a similar cultural background we seemed to get along and talk a lot. But here’s the thing: I HATED HER! OUTRIGHT NO REASON! I don’t know why or how it happened but I just happened to get annoyed anytime she opened her damn mouth. I did my best to avoid her, having lunch alone, sitting in the office mini cafeteria instead of the meeting rooms for calls. She even asked me for my socials and contact number. I hesitated since I had no interest in being even a friend, but had to share eventually. She was sweet and kind but I used to get this feeling that she was arrogant and only spoke to me in a social setting when nothing was going on just like I used to be forced to put up with her.

P was our common friend and this guy who I thought K was into and vice-versa. Now P and I got extremely tight and became really good pals in a week or so. We felt like we were long lost brothers or something. We also had another colleague in our group S but he wasn’t really in per say since he spent most of the time on calls with his “GF” (pretty sure he’s pretending to have one). I’ve known S the longest, since college. So yeah it was just the 3 of us I guess. Anyways S and P have to fly out for about a month to work at location for a client and I’m basically all alone in the office with K and her “very charming” team of cackling middle aged women with so many problems in their lives that all they did was complain about how everything is wrong with the world and how women must be independent but also dress modestly and also not settle for one guy and pick 3-4 partners and remain unmarried. The feminist in me doesn’t know how to feel about them. So I naturally became isolated when P and S left town. Credit to K since she noticed that I was isolated so she’d invite me a few times to have lunch together or just the evening tea. Usually it was when half the office would work from home but she seemed kind I guess.

Anyways, one Friday I happened to take leave to give an exam when P called me up and told me that I should go to the office on the coming Monday because K seems to have had a fight with her “gang”. Monday I met up with K and she gave me the update on how for the past 2-3 weeks she had been targeted by these women for her lifestyle and who she was. She had a breakdown and told me she was fed up with them. Now upto this point I had started softening towards her, not to start liking her but noticed she was a human after all and not this horrible person I imagined. She was vulnerable and actually had felt hurt. So I started talking to her more often, but still there wasn't any interest from my end. One sunday I went to a cricket match and that day I ended up fracturing my left leg and a stud spike struck me in the face causing it to break my skin on the face. Horrible indeed. That night I found out K and P were meeting up for dinner. For some reason,this upset me. My injuries didn’t hurt me as much as K’s story did. I was on really strong painkillers.

The next day in office K was again ignorant and avoiding, not just me but everyone for some reason. I didn’t realize that something might have happened because I was injured and too emotionally drained by a freaking story to notice. I also felt upset that K didn’t notice my leg and face but then at the end of the day she saw me leaving and came running over to ask me what happened. We spoke for a while and before I left she told me that she wanted to talk to me about something and that we’ll sit down and have a conversation. That sit down conversation happened much later and I had forgotten about it because now we had started spending time with each other as more than colleagues. I felt like a real friendship had formed. I even felt foolish for unnecessarily hating her without reason and now giving her a chance as a person. Later P leaves the office since he didn’t get the promotion he wanted and after a year of work and pursued new opportunities. I was jealous of the 2 of them so I tried to act cool and asked K what happened after he left. Apparently on their date night, P tried to make a pass on K's cousin. WTF?? I mean seriously she’s a child compared to our age. It felt sickening to hear that and K was pissed. He tried getting closer to her for her cousin, DISGUSTING!

Then it clocked me as to why suddenly these 2 weren’t on talking terms anymore. I felt bad for K since she genuinely seemed to like him and I knew exactly how she felt. I offered her reassurance and told her I’d help her find a better partner. It was extremely confusing for me. My pain meds made me feel jealous but under normal conditions I didn’t feel anything at all. Now we spend a lot of time in the office together: meals, evening call times in the cafeteria and have our own inside jokes. What at first seemed to be irritating and annoying is suddenly something I adore. I hated when I was disturbed in the office mini cafeteria but now I love how she loves my private space. I can literally sit all day and listen to her yap about her political views, her goals, her life and how she would like to fall in love. Truth is I hadn’t even realized my feelings until my friends told me I was in love. I dismissed them but then the very next day K showed me a snap of herself in this sexy white top and denim shorts and in my mind I was like HOLY CRAP IM IN LOVE. She looked so elegant and beautiful. She is already so intelligent and wears these cute glasses and everything: I felt like God answered my prayers for the perfect person for me. I don’t mean to objectify her in any sense but that basically was the thing that did it for me. Beauty with Brains and a kind and gentle soul.

I started noticing her behavior and how she acted and felt like sometimes she was dropping hints. She was telling me about how we should travel together to some place. I should ask someone out. We talk a lot about dating and what we want in a relationship and basically every conversation feels like a study or analysis of each other. Maybe I'm overthinking

But here’s the catch, we only talk in the office, not outside of work. We have absolutely no interaction on the weekends. Also I keep deactivating my socials for extended periods to limit brainrot. And I’m leaving at the end of May. I’ll be leaving the city and by December she’ll leave the country for higher studies. She’s this NRI person who is training here so that she can study abroad. Her whole life seems to be outside India. Now the thing is even if by some miracle we get together (GOD I HOPE PLEASE), the fact that she’ll be halfway across the globe is difficult to accept. I can survive but she’s extremely social and popular. A hot and smart girl like her gets asked out by countless suitors. If she does meet someone there, there’s a good chance that will be the end of us. I know she wouldn't cheat but i feel like I'd be holding her back from living her best life.

Also another thing I'm worried about is what if this is all in my mind, what if she secretly hates my guts like I did with her and she’s only tolerating me because there’s no one else to talk to. My biggest worry is also: What if I’m not good enough for her? Right now I’m a work in progress and she seems to be so amazing. What if by the time difficult questions and situations come up that I am not able to provide answers and prove myself to her? Truth is it feels like she is THE RIGHT PERSON WRONG TIME. I have also thought of eventually pulling myself away from her so that by the time I leave the company, this wouldn’t hurt

This time rather than confessing my feelings to her and telling her what she means to me, I’ve decided that I am going to keep my mouth shut and walk away. It didn’t work after my 12th, my second year of college or in the Christmas holidays and I don’t expect it to work now. If there’s any opinions y’all wanna share feel free. I’m all ears. Thanks for listening!

PS: Her bday is coming up and I really wanna gift her something: please drop ideas