Thus far. . .

So as of today I have almost 30000 words in the narrative. From what I have read about publishing, most want a first book to be in the neighborhood of 100000 words, which put me just under a third of the way there. I still am not sure how I feel about the story so far, or if what I want to do is even publishable. Honestly, the story that I have in mind is a world war, involving multiple nations and races, a couple of gods, etc. It's a multi-volume affair, easy.

Which I assume is kind of fine in the fantasy genre, given that most of the more renowned fantasy works are not stand-alone volumes. In fact, I am hard-pressed to come up with any book in the vein of sword n sorcery fantasy that became well-known as a solitary book, rather than a series. Elric, Lord of the Rings, Narnia, etc. are all series. It gets even more elaborate in modern fantasy. Robert Jordan died writing I think the twelfth book in his Wheel of Time, and damnable ape George RR Martin has stalled out on the fifth volume of A Song of Ice and Fire (which is a great series, that I will only ever recommend to friends again if GRRM finishes the damn fifth book and continues on).

So my question is. Provided I finish a first volume (which I for the first time in a long history of getting frustrated or bored while writing, feel confident that I can do, I'm a good 70 pages further along than any prior efforts), do I shop it around with a treatment for subsequent books? It would seem silly if I were doing a serious, arty type novel. But from what I see, at least in terms of what gets published by fantasy houses, they must shop for series that they know will produce repeat sales after a first volume.

Oh yeah, my other point of writing this. If any of the few folks who read this have a friend who doesn't know me who you think would read this and offer some contructive feedback and impressions, I'd appreciate it. I'm happy with the writing thus far, but the only audience is friends, and folks who I have probably bored stiff about this world before in talking about role playing through the years. I need, for lack of a better term, an ignorant reader.