When I first began querying nearly three months ago, I decided that I would only query thirty agents. If none of them resulted in an offer, I would go back to the drawing board. I have now reached that point where I have to make a difficult decision.
Although I have received the most amazing and humbling feedback from my pool of beta readers (and even a freelance editor I reached out to), it appears that agents are not looking for a story such as mine. I could continue to pursue representation with this book, but I now feel that it would prove to be fruitless. I think my best course of action would be to start a new, shorter project to help me break into the industry.
I already have an idea planned from start to finish, and it will be a standalone that can also tie into the world I've already built (so if I do get published, I can revisit the first book). So now I just have to write it.
I've resolved that if this next project gets me nowhere, I will move to self publishing. I haven't given up yet, but I may need to take a different approach.