What Readers Want

www.salon.com had an interesting article yesterday: A Reader's Advice to Writers. The bullet points are:

1. Make your main character want something.
   
2. Make your main character do something.
   
3. The components of a novel that readers care about most are, in order: story, characters, theme, atmosphere/setting.
   
4. Remember that nobody agrees on what a beautiful prose style is and most readers either can't recognize "good writing" or don't value it that much.
   
5. A sense of humor couldn't hurt.

I think this is good advice for novelists and short story writers.

What do you think?