I just watched a video interview with a novelist on a book-related website, and in part it was a great lesson in what not to say about your writing (that's why he shall remain nameless).
The interviewer mentioned that the book, a thriller, starts with a particularly violent incident. "Yes," the author said with a smile, "not the sort of thing you want to be reading before bedtime." Ooops, how many of us like to read before we go to sleep? Yeah, that's what I thought.
Next, he said that this novel follows on from his first. Since I've not read his first book, I'd probably avoid this one, thinking maybe I would be missing key information.
Then the interviewer asked him about one of the main characters. "He's a young guy, about 30 or 35..." the author said. Wait a minute, you don't know how old he is? Suddenly the whole thing gets kind of vague to me.
Finally, the author gave a summary of the first part of the plot in language that wasn't very exciting, and then said, "and then the story just moves along with him investigating [the case]..." Ho hum.
The thing is, this may well be an excellent book, my point here is that he did a terrible job of selling it. The lessons:
* don't say anything negative about your book, not even jokingly (as in "not something to read before bedtime")
* don't try to tell too much of the plot--pick out some key aspects and make them sound as exciting as they are in the book
* be specific about the characters and situations, with language that creates an exciting image in our minds
