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Book Review & Contest Insights from Real Reviews and Submissions

What separates great books from the rest? Below are articles with insights from real reviews and contest submissions—what works, what doesn’t, and how to improve your book. You’ll also find a wide range of articles covering writing, publishing, marketing, and more. Each article has a Comments section so you can read advice from other authors and leave your own.

Why Some Books Win Awards (And Most Don’t) — Insights From Real Contest Submissions New!

What separates award-winning books from the rest? After evaluating contest submissions across a wide range of genres, certain patterns become clear. Some books consistently rise to the top. Others, even with strong ideas and clear effort behind them, fall short. The difference is rarely dramatic—it...

What We’ve Learned From Reviewing Hundreds of Thousands of Books (And Why Most Don’t Stand Out) New!

After reviewing and evaluating books across thousands of submissions over the past two decades, certain patterns become impossible to ignore. Some books immediately stand out to reviewers. Others—even well-intentioned ones—fade into the middle or fall short. The difference is rarely luck. It comes down to...

Blogging About Your Life

What Not to Blog About Your Personal Life.

Your personal life is sacred. It's something that is all your own and that should be valued. When blogging, you want you share your world with others so that they will get to know who you are and associate that with the voice that you have developed. While there is a lure to share yourself through blogs, there are certain things you may be wise not to share.

Photographs of your children.

Photographs of your children is a way to show your family and make yourself more familiar and personable to your readers, but often there are naked pictures of children on the internet that give a negative representation of children. There are people out there that have bad motivations to look at children without clothing, and so it is important to protect yourself and your children by keeping those types of pictures off the internet.

Address; home or work.

This is probably self-explanatory, but if you accept things like post cards, holiday cards or gifts in the mail, it is a wise choice to get a post office box and showcase that to your audience. This will protect you from stalking, or receiving malicious things in the mail at your place of residence.

Disclose private family information.

The blog that you have created really has nothing to do with extended family. It is for you, and the content that you are sharing about yourself and your ideas. Sharing personal information about friends and family members is impolite, and inconsiderate of their privacy. Your audience also may not appreciate it, or it may be off putting to the content that you really want to get across, so try to avoid this temptation.

Disclosing the names of others.

If you decide to disclose information about friends or family, make sure to at least change their names. This will secure their privacy and protect them from others who may know them getting hold of the information. Regardless of how you may feel about them, respecting their privacy is a very wise step if you want to be a successful and respected blogger.

Sharing intimate information about your partner.

You love your husband/wife. They satisfy you, and you are excited by the love that they show you. While this is all very understandable, you can get yourself in quite a bit of trouble disclosing sexual information about your partner. Some of your audience members may take the opportunity to befriend you for the wrong reasons;mainly to get close to your spouse in some way. This may sound ridiculous, but many people are very interested in this type of challenge. This can lead to harassment or all types of unnecessary online drama. Strive to avoid disclosing this type of private information.

Being engaged and open with others is a healthy way to approach relationships. Even as a blogger, your audience will appreciate you transparency. However, being aware of what you share and making sure that you keep a check on what you disclose about your personal life shows maturity, and it also shows that you understand the dangers of revealing so much information.