Starting with the assumption that you have written a work of art, this book proceeds to give humorous advice on how to fix it so that it never gets published.

Written by two experienced author/editors, "How Not to Write a Novel" describes with examples all the wonderful ways in which aspiring authors sabotage their own writing.  It is not meant as a rule book, as rules are meant to be broken.  It's merely a collection of observations on what commonly results in a rejected query.  As they admit, there are already a plethora of "How To Write" books.  The authors felt some good counter examples would be helpful.

One of my favourite lines comes from the "Advanced" section near the end, where they drop the backwards angle and state simply "If you can't do these things well, don't even attempt them."  One such topic is Sex Scenes.  In it they write my favourite line: "Giving the reader a half-right sex scene is like giving them half a kitten.  It's not half as cute, it's a god awful bloody mess."

So true!  So horrible!  So wonderful an analogy!

This kind of humour is abundant in all their counter examples, some of which are downright painful to read (even more so if you recognize it in your own writing!).  I highly recommend any author to read this book.  It's like a Best-Of compilation of "DIY Disaster" for novels.