If you want to get rich quick, write a book on writing.

Though it is very entertaining to read a book about writing..

True, the perils of punctuation have been well documented by Lynn Truss in her best-selling Eat, Shoots and Leaves, but there are plenty of other areas of writing phobia still to be exploited.

Truss performs a near miracle: taking the comatose out of the comma, and bringing fear of the apostrophe to a full stop.

She even manages to clear out the colon and provide a quick dash around the dash.

But there are millions of pounds to be made from a quirky guide to gerund or a definitive article on the indefinite article.

...I doubt whether many have become more confident or skilful writers just by pouring over someone else's formula for becoming the next Hemingway or Jackie Collins.

Having written several business books myself, I am increasingly cynical about the power of the written word to help us master the written word.

It's a bit like writing a song to show people the art of songwriting - there is something ineffectually self referential about books on writing.

That's not to say that one can't improve by reading or studying the techniques of the masters. That's a different story.