And let's just say the attitude is decidedly mixed thus far now that the first six titles in the publisher's "Ryanair" imprint are about to hit stores for the first time. The Times' Tim Teeman (say that three times fast)looks at these new titles and though he very much wants to like them, he can't. "Brickbats notwithstanding, the first six novels are about to be published. The truth? They ain’t great....they are dull, riddled with cliché and clunky plotting. Only Suroopa Mukherjee’s Across the Mystic Shore, a multi-generational saga set in India, has any magic and depth."

DJ Taylor also has his say in the Guardian, and is similarly underwhelmed, but singles out Roger Morris as "the most likely to have been published in the ordinary way - that is, with an eye-catching advance, publicity to match and altogether less eye-catching sales." And sometime Macmillan author Paul Collins offers up his own opinion on the matter, too.

Grumpy Old Bookman's Michael Allen (who attended MNW's launch party late last week) takes a closer look at New Writing's publisher Michael Barnard, whose own book TRANSPARENT IMPRINT reveals everything you wanted (and likely didn't) want to know about this project. Though GOB views this as an essential read containing "a great deal of useful information -- information of a kind which is not often made available to the public," he wonders why Colin Dexter's publishing history isn't included -- because shockingly, the creator of Inspector Morse has never had a literary agent, letting Macmillan handle all business-related matters. Obviously, it didn't deter him from making enough money to retire from writing, but still...