So, this is actually for my partner, who doesn't use social media at all, but she's written a book, and is working on more, but is really struggling getting anything at all from publishing companies. Rare to even get a 'no' response, mostly just ghosting.
Not sure if anyone has any kind of advice; she did set up a website, and has some of the first few chapters posted, and is perhaps considering giving the webserial format a try. But in general, struggling with mental health of having accomplished a cool thing, and now doing the 'business' side of it, and realizing how soulcrushing it all is.
A loooot of the authors we've seen talk about getting their start either knew a publisher already, or had a family connection, and its pretty hard to not feel cynical, even if the authors are genuinely good writers.
FWIW, genre is basically YA fantasy, but gayer.
Yeah, she's trying. Sorry, the way I wrote that was unclear (especially since I don't understand the whole process that well), but she's been reaching out to agents more than publishers.
A single agent gave any real response, saying they prefer works a professional editor has edited, but we've also seen stuff online saying many agents/publishers will want it ran through their own editors. Not to mention hiring an editor on your own is like $3,000 minimum (or so we've seen, with up to $10,000 not being unlikely). And while we could budget for that, its a big cost, not even being sure its an expense that will help.