Just finished my first novel (in French); will be sending it to publishers next week. If they reject it IDK what I'll do (dump it or auto-publish).
But, I'm super happy to have done it. I wrote poems and novellas when I was younger. A complete novel is something else entirely. Even if it doesn't go anywhere, the feeling of having done it is really great.
Please consider self-publishing or putting it on your own blog. Share it on your social media, here on HN, reddit (there are specific subreddits for self-pub, free books, kindle unlimited, etc) and so on. You never know, even a single heartfelt review will be worth the effort. As a reader, I try to help out lesser known authors, here's an example: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/izhhoa/hardest_of_...
But, I'm super happy to have done it. I wrote poems and novellas when I was younger. A complete novel is something else entirely. Even if it doesn't go anywhere, the feeling of having done it is really great.