just finished my first book. what now?

[rookieauthor]

the subject says it all. I just finished writing my first book. It's a Christian fiction novel. I never finished a book before and I don't have a clue on what to do next. After doing some online research I learned about Publishers and Agents. But I don't know what agents are and what they're relationships with publishers are.

I do not want to self publish. My book hasn't even been edited because I don't know anything about editors.

I really don't know where to go from here so I thought it might be a good idea to find a forum about publishing and put this up here as I continue my internet research on what to do next.

Any information/advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[rookieauthor]

Also, I'm not sure if I should be calling my story a novel, a novelette or a short story due to the fact that it is 44,912 words and through my online research I heard that a typical novel size is 80,000+ words. I really wasn't focused on the size of my book as I was simply focused on just telling the story and let the chips fall where they may. Any info on this issue as well would be helpful. I would hate to be calling my book something that it is not, lol.

[sixfigurebookgrowth]

Are you still active on this forum Rookie? Where are you in your publishing journey now.