You’ll probably notice that there are trends in books; Harry Potter started a boom in magic/fantasy novels, Bridget Jones’ Diary made chick-lit very popular. Publishers only publish what they think will sell well, so does this mean that you should be writing to suit the latest hot genre? Well, the short answer to this is no. One of the main reasons for this is that by the time a book is bought by a publisher and has gone through a number of editing processes, it could be over a year before your book is actually on the shop shelf. By that time, who knows what the next big thing is?

It’s common sense, and you probably know it already, but the best thing you can do is write from the heart, write what you love. Obviously, it’s not a good idea to write something that only you love – for instance, complete strangers might not want to read your life story! – but you have to be enthusiastic about your work. You never know, your novel or script might be exactly what they’re looking for – even if they don’t know it yet!