That’s a really good point, re big, ambitious books. I’d be pretty nervous if it was the first thing I attempted as a writer, that’s for sure! Although I remember as a teenager writing these godawful rip-offs of Patricia McKillip, Tolkien, etc. Most of them I’d get half-way through (novels) and then couldn’t figure out how to go on. So at least I never had that horrible feeling of finishing a book and then not being able to publish it.
Jeff

Lately I’ve been thinking about Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian, which took years to write, is dense and neo-Victorian, and is something that I think very few writers would feel encouraged to try for their first novel, largely for fear of failure. The same thing could be said of Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. Both were big, ambitious books, and from a fearful-of-failure standpoint horribly risky. What happens if you spend ten years on a novel, only to find it doesn’t work? I guess you never know until you try.