So, I've been agonizing over this for a little while, and I figured I might as well post it here on the off chance that somebody knows more than me (not hard).
Say you're an aspiring author who's never been published, but you've finished a novelette that you're convinced is almost ready to go out. Except that your manuscript does a couple of funky things: it switches tenses, and it's not actually a linear story, something which is foreshadowed but not definitively revealed until the end.
Should aspiring author be worried that if she sends this manuscript out, the editor or pre-reader is going to look at the ms, catch the hints that all is not quite at as it seems, assume that aspiring author doesn't know what the heck they are doing, and put it down before they've read the ending and seen that the funky stuff does have a point? Would aspiring author be better off to start with a few more conventional stories, until she's had a couple things published and people might actually believe she knows what she's doing?
Hypothetically speaking, of course.
Any input is appreciated. Thanks.