What do readers want?

[Consider this to be part two of last week’s “Forget that Audience.”]

One answer to this question would be some magic formula that guarantees an author s/he’ll have a bestseller. I’d be the first person standing in line to buy that formula, but I’m also enough of a realist to know that it doesn’t exist! What do Fifty Shades, The Martian, and Harry Potter have in common? They surprised the hell out of every agent and editor who thinks they’re privy to that formula, that’s what! Even Amazon adm...