Anyone who daydreams about being a published writer owes it to themselves to read this book and learn what they're up against. There are many, many writing books out there, but this one stands apart for a couple of reasons.

One: it's not by a writer, but by one of those evil literary agents who currently act as the bouncers of the publishing community. His focus in this book is to tell the aspiring writer exactly why their work is going to be rejected long before things like plot, setting, and characterization ever come into play. Which leads us to-

Two: While lots of writing books focus on the "big picture" themes first and only get down to the fine details of editing and word choice in a couple of chapters at the end, Lukeman does it the other way around. He begins by looking at the individual word (and punctuation mark), because that's the first thing a bouncer agent will notice.

Only after you've proven yourself in terms of style and readability will the agent be forced to give you a closer look - and then it gets worse. If you are marginally competent enough to get him past the "first five pages" you're still not in the clear - because now you've pissed the bouncer agent off by forcing him to read your work more deeply, and that's when the gloves really come off.