Having your cake and eating it

Occasionally you may read chunks of new books in the national news - and may wonder how on earth these no-name authors have got their bits of drivel to be serialised.

Well, I guess that if you were a first-time author and had a really, really outstanding book on your hands, then you might have a very slim chance of getting it serialised. Very.

If, alternatively, you have a few contacts on Fleet Street ... why, then you're talking.

So as it happens, it looks very much like a large chunk of The Well-Tempered Clavier is going to be appearing in the Sunday Express magazine. November 4, in case you wondered.

When I first mentioned this as be a possibility to Tom the publisher, he started getting very excited at the thought of charging them money.

"So let me get this right Tom," I said. "This paper is doing us a huge favour by running over 1,000 words of text in their mag, and now you want to charge 'em too?"

"Why not?" he said.

"I think it's a bit greedy," I said. "You're having your cake and eating it". (Hence the picture of Dexter - who is also partial to having his cake and eating it.)

"Sounds good to me," he said. Bless.