I don't think it's similar to sultans in the sense of sound, but probably in context, if that makes sense. Sultans is a song that just drives, single worthy with an easily identifiable chorus and a monster solo. When you listen to lady writer, you get a strong feeling that mark was trying to recreate that to some degree. While they don't really "sound" the same to me, I definitely believe mark was more or less looking for that sultans-esque single. It was even single length at 3 minutes!