[darryl]

I'm going to be very blunt. I haven't read your sample, though if Cinisajoy says your book has potential, I believe it does. However, you need to do your research on the market you are trying to enter. It is very much a buyer's market. Supply far outstrips demand. Anyone can publish. There is no one who can say your book is not up to scratch, you can't publish. So the big word you will come across is discoverability. How can you make your books stand out from the rest so that readers will at least know about them and hopefully consider them for purchase. New authors find it difficult to even give away their books. Even many well established authors make the first book in a series free or very cheap. Even new authors with small publishers will price their books as low as $0.99. And hold promotions where they are free for a certain time. They beg people to leave reviews. And those who are serious about it invest in proof-reading and editing, though I'm sure many never recoup this money. No matter how well you write, putting up a book that has not been properly proofed will likely prove disastrous. Many who do read it, if there are any, will not read beyond the first few mistakes, and reviews are likely to be bad ones. Quite simply, it is unprofessional. If you are doing it as a hobby, and don't care if anyone reads your book, this may be acceptable to you. If you want more than a bare few people to read your book and have ambitions of "making it big", it is inexcusable.

Pricing at $15.99 was, as Harry said earlier, ludicrous. Ludicrous and naive. $5.99 is still ridiculous. You will sell few if any copies.

My advice to you would be to take the book down immediately and at least have it properly proofed. Preferably professionally edited. Given its length it would be good if it could be divided into two or even three parts. The first part you could look at putting into Kindle Unlimited or pricing it at $0.99 or both. You should use the opportunity to give it away for free for a limited time. Once you get a few readers and some reviews, you may be able to price the next book slightly higher. Many successful self-published authors have realised that it is better for them to sell a number of less lengthy works at lower prices rather than a very long work at a hefty price. Few very successful self-published authors sell their books for even $5.99. Many sell for $4.99, $3.99 or even $2.99. So forget $15.99. And forget $5.99 until you have many books under your belt.

It is not demeaning to price your books at $2.99 or lower. Even to give them away on occasions. What you need to do when you start off is to get people to read them, pretty well any legal way you can. Even if you manage this, it is most unlikely that you will ever "make it big" or even make enough to quit your day job. If this is your reason for writing, then forget it. Far better to write because you love doing so and hope that you might be one of the lucky ones. Unless you educate yourself about self-publishing and get realistic, I rate your chances as zero. Sorry, but that's the way it is.