So I've written drafts of the introduction and first four-and-a-half chapters of the book I started about a month ago. The manuscript is already about 50,000 words, and given that I intend for it to be 6 chapters, I shouldn't have any problem — after revisions — getting it to the 75K+ word minumum that academic publishers apparently prefer books to hit.
Now, the chapters I have so far are pretty rough — they're first drafts after all — but I've already begun to edit them in earnest, and for the most part I feel like the chapters I have "say what I want to say" and say it pretty well. Chapter 1 is by far the roughest, as I'm trying to situate my view amongst a vast variety of other theories in the literature. It's been tough knowing precisely how much "scene-setting" to engage in, particularly when I lack expertise on a lot of the other views out there (which doesn't really matter for the sake of the book, since its purpose isn't to refute every other view but offer what I take to be a new, better alternative). Does anyone who has written a book have any advice on this? I have a feeling (just a feeling) that this part of a book is in general the most difficult to write, and gets taken care of better once one gets others to read the manuscript (as people who read the manuscript can help correct one's literature review). Is this right?
Anyway, the big question I have — and would really appreciate anyone's thoughts on — is this: what now? Here's the situation I find mysef in. I think to myself, "Look, I have no idea whether this thing is going to fly. Either the first four chapters show that I have are a good book project, or they don't. I think they do, but then again, I could be wrong. So what am I do?" It doesn't strike me as a good use of my time to spend the rest of the summer writing and revising all six chapters when, for all I know, the book could be a dud, dead on arrival. So, what then? Should I revise the first four chapters a bit more and ask some trusted sources to read them? If so, who should I ask: friends? Mentors? (I worry a bit about the latter because if the book is a dud, I don't want my mentors to see what a turd it is!)
Anyway, because this is my very first time venturing into these waters, I feel quite uncertain about how to proceed. Anyone have any helpful thoughts? Thanks in advance to anyone who does!
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