Goodreads asked Michael Dobbs:

What’s your advice for aspiring writers?

Michael Dobbs Find a niche area of expertise that you can make your own. In my case, it was the Cold War, but it can be anything, from gardening to global warming. If you can make yourself an authority on a certain subject, you will automatically begin to build an audience. Beyond that, you have to find a way to attract and hold the interest of the reader. I am a writer of non-fiction, but I have paid a lot of attention to the writing techniques of novelists. These include memorable characters, vividly described places and scenes, the use of dialogue, and a plot that pulls readers in from the very beginning. This sounds obvious, but can be extraordinarily difficult to accomplish. Remember that the reader is under no obligation to buy your book, let alone to read it. You must give him or her a compelling reason to keep turning the pages.

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