Of course, I like my story; I think it's just the best thing ever. But I also thought that about stories I was writing ten years ago. So maybe my judgement isn't the best thing to go on. Right now I have written about the size of novella, plus a lot of notes, worldbuilding, and summaries of various scenes. But I don't have a full novel manuscript ready to take to an agent. Getting to that point would consume a lot of time and effort, and that's time I could have spent on something else. And I'm not opposed to spending that time and effort, it's just... I don't want to spend years of my life working on this project only to find that it really just isn't that good and no one else would enjoy it. I've already done that before. So, what's a good way to find out if I have a story that is actually worth that time? How can I find out if this is something that a publisher would actually want? When I take this question to a web-search, the advice I find (that actually seems valid) is geared toward people with a full book manuscript on hand. That's not where I'm at.
Even people who are currently submitting their first manuscripts are sealing that submission envelope (or going through the self-publishing process) with just as much if not more uncertainty than yourself. They've also put in a huge amount of time and effort, years of their lives, which (at least I hope in most cases) is ultimately intrinsically rewarding anyway. Don't quit the day job and all that. What brings ease is there's a lot to learn from writing the novel even if it doesn't sell. It's a skill, work it. Brandon Sanderson famously wrote around ten novels before being published.
I feel like I've responded to a similar post not that long ago, but I'll reiterate whatever I probably said in that one. Don't submit to them until you do. Or even directly to smaller publishers, for that matter. The only people interested in "book proposals" are those looking to publish non-fiction. With the market as it is, I can't imagine why anyone would offer a deal on an unfinished work of fiction, unless that author has published several bestsellers, and/or is a celebrity. This can be achieved by researching the want/wish lists of hundreds of agents, all available online. Almost all of them mention the genres and sub-genres they are interested in. I recommend QueryTracker. As to whether what you've got is actually any good, well, you'd have to get some feedback from some beta readers, I would imagine. If you're rich, you could hire an editor.
I think this could address what is at the core of my quandary, but it just flows into a different issue: how do I get beta readers? I believe I've asked about that not too long ago, and there isn't an answer that pleases me, especially for my situation. Friends and family don't give a sufficiently neutral opinion, and roping someone else is a tall order. I've got about 50K words, and no one wants to read that from someone they've never heard of. To be a bit more concrete with with situation, the problem is that the story I'm writing is looking like it will be very long; it would likely wind up being a whole fantasy series instead of just one novel. (And even if it could be shortened, that process would ultimately take even more time.) So the problem is: that would be a LOT of time I could wind up spending on this one project; time I could have spent on other projects. So the question really becomes: would it be better to finish writing this story, or to move on to something else? That's what I'm really facing when I ask if my story is any good. Offhand, I can see wisdom in either path. If I did focus myself on another story, a smaller story, I could gain experience with completing a novel. But if I continue with this story, I can keep better-focused which would go a long way to actually completing anything. (Who's to say the other story wouldn't become just as big? And then I could start a pattern of dropping projects, and I wind up with nothing finished in the time it could have taken me to finish my first story.) I guess... What I really need is to have someone tell me if what I have is good enough; if this story is worth finishing. Where would be a good place to take it to find that answer? Since the story isn't complete, I couldn't take it to an agent/publisher through conventional methods. I've seen people offering alpha/beta reading services on sites like Fiverr or Upwork, but for a question like this I'd need to ask someone who is actually interested in this genre (fantasy), and I don't recall seeing anyone who struck me as a member of my target audience. I'd need to find something between those two.
You're halfway there to finishing it, if you're considering the trad route and will make the first of the series a standalone at ~100K words. If you've gone that far, I'd say go ahead and complete it. Good experience, as you say. And first novels are rarely the ones that get published. I've likely been wasting time trying to sell my first two, but I have learned quite a lot from the process. Paying beta readers on Fiverr will be a crap shoot. I feel like you'd probably get what you pay for, though you could get lucky. Freelance readers are too costly, but if you're rich, hey just get an editor. Getting a beta reader or two isn't impossible; can try posting here: https://www.writingforums.org/collaboration/ and see if you can find a compatible reader. The only cost will be that you will have to read and critique their own work(s) of a similar word count.
I don't think anyone can honestly tell (including yourself) if a story is publishable before it is finished and polished. Anyone can have a good idea, but it's how you execute that idea that really matters.
Have a beta reader give you some feedback. Pick someone that should be in the demographic of your target audience. Read a bunch of works in your genre and then ask yourself if yours is on par with them.
