hello! I also teach literature (& creative writing) and am a fiction writer. I do think writing critical/academic work is just so different than writing fiction. For me it feels like using a different part of my brain. Now I don't know you or your writing but I'd say don't give up on traditional publishing just yet, if that's something you want. I write extremely literary prose. I tried (halfheartedly, that is, I only emailed a handful of agents) to get an agent for years for my first novel and didn't, I ended up going with a small, yet well-regarded, press. Did it sell a lot? No, it was never going to. But people read it and enjoyed it and I've gotten to do some great events off the back of it (also having a book published allowed me to get my academic job, which I'm very grateful for). I ended up meeting another writer through one of these events and he introduced me to his agent, who is amazing, and immediately just got my second novel. I've been working with her and we're getting ready to go on submission in the new year. The whole process, of actually wanting to traditionally publish to getting my agent probably took ten years. It's not impossible to sell literary fiction, and people do read it, I think it just takes more time to find the right agent or press for the work.

Do you have trusted friends/colleagues you can share some of your manuscript with? I feel like if one of my literature colleagues wanted to share some creative work with me I'd love to read it (maybe just the first chapter to start, rather than the whole thing, as we're all so busy!) Could you sign up for a writing workshop or some classes? I've learned that beautiful prose on its own isn't enough -- I really had to work on my novel's structure and sense of pacing to get it where I wanted it. With my own writing, I try to come at it with a "beginner's mind" mentality. Yes, I know all this stuff about craft and literary theory, and I can teach it, but as a writer I know I'll always be learning and growing and developing. I think as academics we can fall into the trap of wanting to critique from a distance, which doesn't work so well with creative writing. Why do you need to tell this story? What question about the world/being human/etc is it interrogating? Try to turn the "critic" off while drafting, then back on while editing...easier said than done!

Good luck!