Author and Nobel laureate Doris Lessing thinks the current marketing climate for young authors is damaging—in fact, she feels "desperately sorry" for them. "Now what happens is that if you are a girl who's good-looking and has written even a passable book you can be earning enormous sums of money very quickly and are then sent on a promotional tour... there are people who can't write a second book because they are always on the telephone or having to do some TV thing." (It must be said: back in the day, Doris was a total babe!) To paraphrase Diane Keaton: if a young lady is good-looking, she won't have to spend as much time working on her "fucking personality!" Or her book. [Times of London]

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