A guide written by a New York agent in the 1990s, which analyses a number of best-sellers at that time, with particular indepth analysis of a book by a writer he represented, Ken Follett. Ironically, he mentions how Follett had to produce a number of best selling thrillers, such as the one he discusses in this book 'The Man from St Petersberg' set in 1914, before being able to get his 'Pillars of the Earth' accepted - ironical, because if you mention the name Ken Follett these days the one book everyone seems to know is 'Pillars of the Earth'. I must admit I had no idea Follett had ever written thrillers before reading this!

The other books discussed included Puzo's 'The Godfather' and 'Gone with the Wind' by Margaret Mitchell, both of which I read some years ago, and a book by another writer about two children swapped at birth which seemed very far fetched. With those the author discusses the characters, points of view, some scenes with analysis of how tension is built etc and the author's choice of (sometimes not the obvious) viewpoint, but it is Follett's that is discussed in depth. He sets out four different outlines that Follett produced for his novel and also has extracts of the first and final versions of a couple of scenes. He analyses why things changed between the various outlines, and also where they changed still further, the actual book departing from the final outline especially in the ending (though ironically I found the actual ending far more melodramatic and unconvincing than the unused one in the outlines, which hadn't worked for me until the antagonist had been given more convincing motives in the 4th one for behaving as he did).

One of the minor mentions in the book are the books of Arthur Hailey who was very popular in the 70s I think for blockbusters such as 'Airport' but who I think isn't read today but he is one of the writers that Zuckerman admires.

The book has some useful discussion of the importance of outlining when tackling a large book. I might give this a try in future. This isn't the short synopsis I'm familiar with but really detailed outlines of 20 to 40 pages. However, some writers, myself included, might find this risks killing off the creativity. If the first draft of a book comes up from the unconscious as I believe, the unconscious might think you'd actually written the book and dry up completely when it came to writing it. But a less detailed one might be useful for a complex, long novel.

The book is very dated in discussing the mechanics of publication as there is no self publishing option, this having arisen much later. But the oddity for me is the characterisation of the reading public - to Zuckerman, people who buy hardbacks (and again this dates the book as a lot of publishers go straight to trade paperback these days) are rich because those are expensive and blockbusters are hardbacks by definition, therefore anyone wanting to write a bestseller should tell a tale of rich and larger than life people in exotic surroundings. No stories about ordinary people in other words. Funnily enough, he twice name checks Stephen King as a bestseller (even in that period this was true) but fails to make the connection, although he acknowledges King's mastery of depicting small town folk and their ways of talking etc. It's obvious from the way he mentions King that he doesn't rate anything supernatural or fantastical so maybe this is the reason for his blindspot and failure to realise that, in the right hands, stories about blue collar workers or the middle class might actually become bestsellers and that readers don't always want to read about the jet set or other types of high flyers.

With the proviso that the advice about agents/publishers and subjects to write about have to be taken with a large pinch of salt, this still has some useful pointers about the craft of writing so I am awarding it 3 stars. ( )

Some very good advice in here. It almost certainly would have helped if I'd read any of the books he uses as examples. I also felt a bit like he was so narrowly focused on the kinds of books that most often sell best (books about the rich and famous, books with multiple points of view, books in exotic settings) that he almost makes it sound like there is a formula. But overall, very helpful and I definitely got some ideas for how to make my own writing better. ( )

My absolute go-to writing book for non-lit fiction. ( )