Marc nodded, impressed with Nico's reserve. It wasn't a quality he felt he'd had at 11, or even really a quality Marc was sure he had now. "There's no rush," he agreed. "It makes sense to wait until you feel settled. I think that's very smart." He grinned at Sol over Marc's head, thinking this might also be taken as evidence that Nico was bound for Ravenclaw. "Oh, both my parents were in Ravenclaw, too, so it definitely does run in families, sometimes." Whether that was a matter of blood or just the way Marc had been brought up, it was still a good sign.
"If you're sure, I'd be interested to read it," Marc agreed. It wasn't something he'd push for - in his field, he knew how wary some writers could be of having any outside eyes on their work - but he was happy to do it if Sol thought it'd be helpful. "I don't read very fast, though," he warned her. "And sometimes I get distracted in the middle of books and kind of wander off, but I'd try really hard not to do that if I knew you were waiting for me to finish." It seemed only fair to give Sol the truth about his reading habits, in case she might prefer to give it to someone else.
Marc frowned slightly, sympathising with Nico's plight. He'd hated being told he was too young for things. (Or, these days, that he was too old for things.) "Aren't there parts of it he could read?" he asked. Obviously, not whatever bits qualified as racy, but Marc imagined that wasn't the whole book.
"Oh, I didn't mean ideas for the writing," Marc explained. "I'd be hopeless at that. I meant for the binding, or the cover. That's pretty much what I do here, I make books that stand out from the normal, boring textbooks. And if this is a new kind of romance novel, you'd want it to stand out in some way, so that people would know it's different and be interested." Getting excited about the idea, Marc lead the way through to the next room, where the books were sewn together and any additional enchantments worked in to the binding. "This one's about meditation," Marc said, gesturing, "and when you open it, it projects a silencing charm to encompass the reader and keep out any distractions."