I can make a million for you overnight

I can make a million for you overnight.

That's a line from the Beatles' excellent song, Paperback Writer, but it got me thinking when a friend posted it as her Facebook status the other day. The concept of the song is that an aspiring writer has sent a letter to a publisher, along with his manuscript, and is promising that it will be their next Big Thing, therefore they should buy it and make him a real, live Paperback Writer.

This encapsulates the ultimate writer's dilemma: if you're writing a...