User blog comment:RexGThurstan/Anyone here ever publish a novel?/@comment-26030957-20170511192447

Never query and agent or publishing house until you have a completely polished manuscript.

There's some great books out there. I'd highly recommend David Corbett's [] THE ART OF CHARACTER. It made me completely rethink the art of novel writing. Also, Stephen King's ON WRITING, which is great for beginners.

But most of all, I'd suggest taking classes. Gotham Writers and Writer's Digest both have great online classes, but, by far the best site for online classes is LitReactor. I've studied under a number of bestselling authors there, including Chuck Palahniuk and Ania Ahlborn. It's also a great community to network with and ask questions, such as this one.

Good luck. I'd suggest keeping your novel on the back burner and work on completing short stories in order to exercise your craft and get feed back.