u/kangarutan

I've been working on a series of novels for a while now. If I'm honest with myself, my writing journey started in high school but the current iterations of my finished works are really only a few years old (started working on the story in 2003/2004 but has been almost completely rewritten from the ground up several times). I finally have my first two books in the series in a really good place where I'm proud of them and I feel they make sense but I don't really know where to go from here.

I've tried getting beta readers and doing swaps but half the time they stop reading about halfway through once I start giving them feedback on their own work. I don't know if they get frustrated by my feedback and quit or if they just aren't enjoying the book. I've also tried shopping it around to Literary Agents but, even the ones that say the handle my genre/age range all come back to me with the same excuse of "This story isn't for me and I hope you can find someone who it is for." Which to me sounds like a round-about way to say, "We can't make money on this so we're passing."

My first novel is just over 60k words and is a YA/Adventure story, the second, obviously a continuation is just over 82k so I don't feel length is the problem. I know I struggled with that at first. To be honest, the first two books are literally two thirds of the original book taken out and embelished on to put more details into sections I felt I was really rushing through to get to the "good parts." That being said, it is all relevant to the plot, it's not just all fluff and overdescription.

In all honesty now, I just don't know what to do and am looking for some advice. I've looked into editors but the prices I've found get steep FAST and I don't know if, at the end of the process, it'll even be worth it. I've looked at hiring cover artists but they either come back to me with crazy high prices or just high prices and then send me generated artwork.

I guess the TL;DR of it is what does one do when they get to this point? I'd love to get my stuff published at some point but it feels more and more that, unless you have some kind of in in the industry you're better off just pushing it online on some writing forum and calling it a day.

EDIT: Okay, I should probably clarify here. I started working on this concept 20 years ago with some writing sprints here and there to get something on paper. I didn't actively start trying to get it published until about 3-4 years ago after going through several self-revisions and updates. I didn't write it 20 years ago and have just been trying to sell the same story the whole time. It's honestly something I've just been working on in my free time and not something I've been actively slamming on constantly and buring years of my life away on it.

Also, originally, I was just doing it for fun, but I thought that, over time, it might be a story that someone might find interesting or get some kind of enjoyment out of. That's why I read the books I read growing up. I never planned on becoming the next George R.R. Martin or Stephen King. I figured if I could just introduce one person to the world I created and it made them laugh, made them cry, or even just made them forget their troubles for a bit, that's all I really wanted to do.

That's what these characters did for me. So I thought they could help others through some tough times as well.

I've always been curious about it. Any time I've tried doing a flip on a diving board and straightening out my feet just keep going and I end up doing a back/belly flop.

I love the combat and the mech building and the feeling of zooming around the galaxy and selling my skills to the highest bidder, but ya know what really grinds my gears?

Why do other merc companies get bases and multiple drop ships and multiple lances?

I'd love for there to be a management system in this game where, once you save up enough C-Bills you could purchase a base, assign personnel, purchase additional Leopards and, eventually, Union drop ships. Have multiple lances running missions in multiple systems.

Like, yeah, I could still strap myself into a Marauder and punch holes in the metal but I'd love to have a full merc company.

I recently (5/6) updated the firmware on my Mongoose throttle. At first it seemed fine but then today when I plugged it in the throttle handle itself started acting like a mouse. Each side of the split throttle acts as an axis on the mouse. I've tried everything to get it to work right but it no matter what settings I changed it continues to act the same. The only way I can get it to stop is if I unplug my mouse, but then I have no mouse so that's not a viable option.

If I leave it perfectly at 50% I can still use the mouse as normal, but if I move it at all in either direction it will start to move around. If anyone has had this problem and has a fix, please, help me out!