Linton Weeks noemt in de Washington Post het proza van de best verkopende schrijvers stijlloos. Zijn recept voor succes:

• Keep characters simple. Good people are good; bad are bad. No ambiguities, please. Focus on the movement of the story and any high-tech or military aspects. Here, for instance, is what the official Amazon review — tradition-ally a kiss-up — says of Stephen Coonts’s recent novel “America,” which features Rear Admiral Jake Grafton: “Stephen Coonts describes the submarine at the center of the action so lavishly and lovingly that the U.S.S. America is much more real — and even more human — than any of his flesh-and-blood characters, including Grafton himself.”
• Put people in mortal danger. Plot is everything. Grisly murders, terrorist attacks, natural disasters, scientific emergencies, edgy sex and inexplicable events are es-sential. (Don’t worry too much about plausibility. Inexplicable events are, natch, inexplicable.)
• Pick a catchy title. Like those of Sue Grafton, author of 16 alphabetized No-Style mysteries such as “A Is for Al-ibi” and “B Is for Burglar.” Or of No-Stylist Janet Evano-vich, who has published “One for the Money,” “Two for the Dough” and “Three to Get Deadly,” among others. “When the Bough Breaks” is already taken. So are “Along Came a Spider” and “Clear and Present Danger.”
• Study the bestsellers. After his first novel failed, Robin Cook dissected a whole shelf of bestsellers. He made a note of each clever device. His second novel, “Coma,” used every trick in the books. And sold like crazy.
• Pay no attention to the critics [...]

Vraag ik me toch af wie zich in Nederland ooit over de stilistische vaardigheden van noem maar iemand als Appie Baantjer druk zou maken.