There is an ancient publishing story told to me as being about Jeffrey Archer, but which could really be about any number of highly ambitious and demanding young novelists. Way back at the beginning of his career, the story goes, when his first books were published he would buy himself tickets on branch lines fanning out from London. These were the days when the majority of stations had a WH Smiths and he is supposed to have stopped at each station which had one and ask if they had copies of his book.