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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...

How to Format an eBook

Creating an eBook is not as simple as it seems. When you are creating one, you need to know how to format an eBook along with how to make it look presentable to the public. The use of the right format enables you to make your books presentable while at the same time it enables you to set a specific type of pattern for each chapter. There are actually several ways how to format an eBook and it actually depends on your writing style and story setting.

One of the most important factors to consider when selecting a format is the type of text that you will be using. In classic books, text format will often be based on scripts or several decorative types of lettering. Of course, the most common right now is the use of Arial or Times New Roman since they are the types of fonts that are easy to digest and be read. Now, if you are publishing an eBook in a different genre such as a horror or a comic type book then you can apply other types of text patterns or fonts. The text patterns will often be based on the characters per chapter, including subheadings and other separate paragraphs. For instance, if you add an epilogue to the story, then you can also use another text format in order to make it clearer to the reader. Remember, never choose a font or text type that is too annoying or challenging to read.

The next step is to determine the type of margin to apply. Usually, the margin will depend on how the sentences will be placed together, along with how the sides of the book will affect the paragraphs. It is important to choose a type of margin which will not shorten the sentences to such an extent that it will add more pages to your eBook. You can actually apply the standard format used by most office based software programs like Microsoft Word. If you are writing books through those programs, you will notice that a margin will already be set. So, remember to use this type of margin within your book.

The last part on how to format an eBook is the chapter and story outline. The chapter and the story outline will be the natural setting of the book. In most cases, some writers will often add a sub chapter per each main chapter. This is often used for books based on various facts and ideas or stories with lengthy introductions and themes. Your story outline is also important in the format of your eBook since it will be the main basis of your writing. In order to compose the right book and to add all the necessary information in the right chapters, you will need to apply a story outline.