Gilly Flower

that ensured she clinched a publishing contract for her first novel?

I realise that probably sounds b*tchy, which it isn't meant to do. It's a serious question that I pose here among a group of fellow scribes, because it was asked at my book discussion group the other night by women who are serious readers. And they have a point.

In fact it was one of the best book club evenings we've ever had, despite the title under discussion being universally derided as a waste of trees.

In fact we all wondered why it was even in the book discussion catalogue because in addition to fulfilling every example of writing no-nos beginning writers make, (lack of focus, too many characters, non-existent plot etc), its literary merit was vitually nil.

According to the blurb on the back cover (written by well-known Aussie exponents of fiction) the novel was a riveting read by an author who is a highly regarded and award-winning journalist with the national broadsheet.

No argument there. The author in question does indeed write excellent features, but the novel fell way below the blurb's description. Had she submitted her manuscript under a name other than her own it's extremely unlikely it would ever have been lifted from the slush pile.

Too harsh? Well perhaps, but I can't help wondering if this novel was published primarily on the strength of the writer's journalistic reputation; because no way was it due to the quality of her fiction.

We came to the conclusion it was a piece of vanity publishing on the part of the writer. But I wonder which novel of greater merit was possibly overlooked in order to satisfy that vanity. As well as the publisher's bottom line.