You want to publish with a publisher because a publisher knows how to publish a book. And you don't. You really don't.

Reading can almost be viewed as empathy training. Movies have better action scenes, sure. But books are uniquely suited to showing you the inside of another person's head. That is the root of empathy. That's the first step to understanding you're not alone in the world.

All stories are true.

If I could sum it up in 50 words, I wouldn't have needed to write a whole novel about it.

If I talk about what I'm good at, I seem like I'm a conceited egomaniac.

Clean, quick, and easy as lying. We know how it ends practically before it starts. That's why stories appeal to us. They give is the clarity and simplicity our real lives lack.

Writing a good query letter has very little to do with writing a good novel. But if you can't write the one, it makes it really hard to get the other published.