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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...

Query Letters And Cover Letters: What’s The Difference?

Writing a great query letter is the first step in getting your book published. The query letter is the only way to introduce your work to agents. Many writers get anxious at the thought of writing query letters. However, writing query letters does not have...

Most Important Tips For Getting A Dream Agent

The most important tips about landing a dream agent are often the most frequently ignored. Many authors are quick to overlook tips that appear so easy but such tips are usually the ones that count. Below are some fundamental tips that can help authors to...

Top Ten Things That Authors Do To Annoy Agents

Authors should always know how to interact with literary agents to avoid conflicts. They should also be well-informed about the conventions in the literary world to avoid wasting agents’ valuable time. Whether or not you are a renowned writer, there are some mistakes that agents...

Why The First Pages Can Make Or Break Relationships With Literary Agents

The first five pages of a novel, which are considered to be the opening pages, are very important if an author wants to get the attention of a literary agent or editor. Surprisingly, a number of authors still do not give this part of their...

Why Query An Agent Instead Of Going Directly To Editors?

There are many ways for authors to get their works out these days. Among the methods of publishing include: self-publishing, e-presses, print on demand, and using independent publishing houses. However, there are many reasons why an author should use the traditional path of going to...

What Authors Should and Should Not Expect From Agents

One of the first steps that any author does to get his book published is to query a literary agent to help the author get the attention of a publisher. An agent acts as a go-between for authors and their potential publishers. Agents are an...

Things That Can Go Wrong If An Author Has No Literary Agent

Agents are not perfect. In fact, they are far from that but if an agent is any good, he could make a huge difference in an author’s career. What if an author is not interested in the services of an agent? What could possibly go...

How To Identify A Bad Literary Agent

There are very many writers around and a similar number of literary agents whom writers depend on to get their works published and to get paid. However, even though there are many legitimate agents, not all of them can be trusted. As a result, any...

How To Avoid A Bad Literary Agent

What are the steps that authors can take to find out if an agent is legitimate and trustworthy? One of the ways that authors can find trustworthy agents is to query only agents whose reputation precedes them. There are several agents that moonlight as writers...

How Do You Distinguish A Literary Agent From An Editor?

In the book publishing industry, editors and agents play different but very important roles. Many authors wonder if they can get an editor without a literary agent and vice versa. Some authors don’t know if they must have an agent in order to publish their...