I asked a book rep once, since he sees so many published books, what he thought the characteristic of a publishable book was. He said “good writing,” which I thought was a cop out and categorically untrue (just read The Di Vinci Code or Marley and Me and you’ll see that writing capability has approximately 0 to do with it).
What I think he meant to say was “a good story.” Because that part seems to be true. The Di Vinci Code certainly is a riveting and brilliant plot line that caused all sorts of conspiracy theories, panics and so forth. Marley and Me too–good story.
Luckily for all of you, the book pictured above (Water for Elephants) has both: good story (I was riveted, finding ways to stay awake longer in order to read it) and great writing. It just made the Required Reading List.
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