I said there would be a lot of practical stuff from now on. Firstly, I would like you to look at the new Richard and Judy Book Club titles - read them if you want to, of course, but initially I mean look at in terms of the genres, themes, and etc. You will find that most of them deal with countries other than this one and times other than now and several deal with war in one way or other. These are the books which have meat - the writers have something to write about, a story to tell, a time to immerse themselves in, another country to describe. This is the sort of book which a lot of people are reading now. They want meat. Thin, beautifully written, inward-looking contemporary literary novels are not fashionable and the 'me' novel does not find a place in this selection. Now R and J is not the be-all and end-all but they DO have a finger on the reading pulse. And if you want to succeed as a novelist now you do need to look at what is fashionable (awful word), what people are publishing, reviewing, readingm discussing, buying now. Crime fiction is, as ever, popular and there is a lot of Fantasy about. But the R and J list not only contains some very good books, it will show you what people like to read today, And although it is true that you write what you want, you cannot afford to ignore what others want too. Of course fashion changes. And I am not suggesting you copy any of these novels. Just that you study them carefully and take note. There is not a bad book among them, by the way.

Next up, AGENTS.