I am an impatient reader. No matter what the genre or subject, something has to happen very quickly to get me involved and keep me there.

In commercial popular fiction (crime, thrillers, and historical novels) the plots have to be immediately intriguing and the characters compelling. And books on world and national affairs have to grab my attention right at the beginning.

Business books, self-help, and psychology have to be practical and real-world; I’m not particularly interested in wading through reams of words trying to figure out how and why a book might be useful.

And in humor, sports, and travel, the challenge is to be entertaining in a fresh and exciting new way.

Publishing has changed. Very good just isn’t good enough any more; whatever you write has to be better than very good -- much better. So the first part of my job is to help make sure your proposals and manuscripts can turn editors on, and the second is to get your project out there and sell it.