Is it literary? Is it readable?

They warned me not to call my novels literary when querying agents or publishers. Literary is in the eye of the expert, they said. Literary sounds like you don't think it will sell. Literary narrows the audience. But I love literary fiction!

I read recently that literary writing really doesn't sell, and the authors, for the most part, rely on (sadly decreasing) sponsorship. And yet, if a book is described as literary, I will almost certainly pick it up and look at it. Will I buy it? That proba...