What the godparents are teaching us about bestselling is that there must be a dominant topic to give the glue to a novel, and that topics in the next highest proportions should suggest a direct conflict that might be quite threatening. It is not good to have randomly different topics that have as much to do with one another as chalk and cheese—a primary theme of sexuality and a secondary one of gardening, for example, does not imply the same potential human drama that may make for a compelling narrative. Bestselling authors pick combinations with guaranteed hooks—how about children and guns,
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