[abigsmurf]

I've always enjoyed writing. I operated an ultra niche website and personally wrote something like 300 reviews for it. Never done something 'professionally' though.

I've had a great idea for a horror story and it's been floating around in my head for years, begging to be put down on paper. It would probably somewhere between a longish short story and a novella.

I've a few questions:

Given it's going to be a horror I'm not too keen on the prospect of showing it off to family and friends (I doubt Clive Barker for example would've given some of his stories to his parents to read). What's a good option for getting a solid opinion on if the book is great or unreadable rubbish?

As a fairly poor person, what are my options editing wise? I'm hopeless at proof reading my own work.

Finally, self publish or professionally published?

Self publishing is a lot easier with e-books but I've heard that self publishing is a good way to ensure you will be shunned by the big publishers in the future. You also don't get the professional services a publisher would provide you.

I've also heard that getting your stuff picked up by a publisher can be a pretty soul destroying experience.