What makes a book worth publishing? It’s a question to be found equally often in the minds of literary agents and aspiring writers, and the audience at this Brighton Festival event consisted mostly of the latter.

Considering this, it’s a shame that the majority of the debate centred on the shortlisted entries to this year’s Myriad Editions’ Writers’ Retreat Competition. While it was fascinating to hear about why those particular stories kept the fingers of the industry insiders clasped on their manuscripts, there was a lack of focus on broader literary trends.

That was until the question and answer session, where the assembled writers posed challenging queries. From the future of e-publishing to knowing when to stop editing, these were the questions which seemed to enthrall the gathered crowd.

With a panel including an influential blogger, a creative writing tutor and a very successful author, there was a trove of industry knowledge available and the backgrounds were diverse enough to make their opinions interestingly disparate.

I’m not sure the hour-long talk answered the central question but maybe that’s their point: that literary worth is in the eyes of the reader.