A very good post, Jools. As a novelist I too want readers to read all of my novel and I don’t like the fact that the ‘first 10 pages’ are make or break with many readers. If you are well known then it isn’t so important to grab the reader from the start, but lesser known writers need this hook to keep the reader–in my opinion. I also think that the genre of the novel has much to do with the expectations of readers.