This is a book that I would absolutely recommend to anyone interested in pursuing writing as a career. It's clearly written, to the point, and provides an insight into the process that I haven't run into elsewhere.

The basic gist is that the author is an agent, and the book is a guide for avoiding the things which would stop him (and other agents) from reading further into your manuscript. These problems - and suggestions for diagnosing and solving them - are arranged in order of highest priority on down.

I think the approach is great. The samples of what problem writing might look like are often taken from the extremes (at least I hope they are), but that makes them easy to spot. I would have enjoyed a more subtle 'test' set of examples, possibly at the end of the book, where you try to locate which problems are where, and then consult the answers at the end. On the other hand, I acknowledge that this would have been a Serious Pain to write, so its absence isn't something I consider a big deal.

This is a great toolset, and is thought-provoking. All I can really suggest is that it's well worth a read, and I think I need to get myself a copy.