About 15 years ago I found a novel in some things I bought at an auction. At the time, I got the feeling the items came from the estate of a dead woman. Anyway, I stored the manuscript (some pages printed, some xeroxed), and it turned up again last week. I read it, searched the internet for the writer's name, didn't find any connection. Searched the character names, nothing. Copyright office database, she never copyrighted it that way, though it is copyrighted when created, yadda, yadda.

I held onto the manuscript because I'd hate to destroy the only copy of someone's novel, but now I don't know what to do with it. I guess I could scan it and burn it onto disc, in case the dog ever eats a page.

It looks like the woman was never published, but she dedicated the book to her children. If she really had children (doubt is cast over the legitimacy of the dedication by events within the story), but if she had kids maybe they'd want this. Or maybe it's worth $$$ that they could use. Don't know how to proceed. Any ideas?