Decide My Future

A Poll on Astral Academy

Jun 07, 2025

There’s a difference between the WIP you love and one that you are confident might actually sell.

I wrote Astral Academy to finish what I started.

It’s the standalone sequel to my first novel, and I needed to complete my protagonist’s arc—not for the market, not for a pitch deck, but for her. For me. For the sake of artistic integrity. And for the few hundred people that read Club Daze and The Subtle Realm.

And I love it. Truly. It’s weird, genre-bending, metaphysical, and wholesome in a real-world phenomena/utility way, that I’ll probably never be able to replicate. But here’s the thing I haven’t said aloud until now:

I’ve never had full confidence that Astral Academy is marketable. Not in the eyes of the Big Five, and maybe not even in indie or small press. Not even with a strong hook or the perfect comp titles. Because I’ve been querying it for four months, and while I’ve gotten some loose interest, nothing’s landed. It’s multi-pov and I play with a few tools to shift perspective, which I think is great but it’s a risk—and you know who doesn’t like risks.
Here’s the other thing: I’m already ten chapters deep into my third novel, working title Death Wishes, and I can feel it. This one is different. This is the one. It’s speculative and sleek and thematically tight. It's high-concept but rooted. It’s everything I’ve grown into as a writer. And it feels—undeniably—marketable.

So now I’m standing at the crossroads many writers know all too well:

Do I self-publish Astral Academy—let it live as the bridge book it is, give it the readers it deserves, and go full force into Death Wishes?
OR
Do I take one last swing at traditional publishing with Astral Academy? Rewrite it based on an editor’s feedback, which will probably take 2 more months, and polish it until it reads “market”, then send it out into the world again, hoping this time someone sees what I see?
For Reference:
ASTRAL ACADEMY QUERY LETTER
&
FIRST THREE CHAPTERS