Thanks, Jeff. Nobody should underestimate the importance of the luck and "right place, right time" factors.

The literary market has a lot to do with success as writer. A book that flies one year might flop in another because that market has changed.

In Tom Clancy's day, you might easily have sold a technothriller clone of his The Hunt for Red October, But we're no longer in the old Cold War, and genres like "cli-fi" (climate-change thrillers) are more in style and, if well done, could be an easier sell.