There has never been a tougher time to be a debut novelist – only a tiny fraction receive six-figure advances, and most manuscripts end up in the shredder. So, what makes or breaks the first-timers? Kate Kellaway reports and talks to five who made it into print.
Metaphor 
Someone should publish a book about how it feels not to be published. But of course once the book's published, the author's no longer not published. Another koan may lurk in there somewhere.