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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 Get an Agent/Publisher

What are you going to do now that your manuscript is ready? After weeks, months, or even years of laboring over it, you have completed it, confident that now is a good time to have it published and be read by other people. For many...

About Agents/Publishers

When you talk about publishing books, it is rather inevitable that the talk leads to a discussion about agents/publishers. These two entities constitute a significant part of the entire publishing process. In fact, as a writer, it is very important that you try to learn...

What Do Literary Agents Really Want?

What do literary agents really want? As an aspiring author who wants to be published, this is the million dollar question, isn’t it? Knowing the answer to this question will help you to take one step further towards that coveted publishing dream. So what do...

Mistakes Authors Make When Writing a Query Letter

A query letter is a business letter that should be written professionally and thoroughly proofread for errors. It should introduce an author’s book and convince a literary agent why it is a good idea for him to agree to work with the author. It is...

How To Identify Real Literary Agents

If you are an author looking for a literary agent, it can be a daunting task to differentiate between the good and bad ones. The following are some things you should look out for when looking for an agent. Real agents rarely advertise: The literary world...

Preparing To Start The Process Of Querying Agents

One of the most important things you should do is to research literary agents before deciding whether or not to deal with them. If you get an inexperienced agent, s/he might mean well but may lack the necessary connections to sell your book. There are many...

Who Needs Literary Agents And Who Doesn’t?

Literary agents act as the gatekeepers to the coveted traditional book publishing industry. They can literary make or break a writer’s dream of publishing his/her works with traditional publishing houses. However, many less-experienced authors don’t know when to get a literary agent or whether they...

Most Important Things To Know About Literary Agents

If you have written a book and want to publish it using a commercial publisher, you must get an agent to introduce your work to the publisher. Agents significantly increase your chances of landing a book deal and they are well worth the 12-15% commission...

Do You Really Need a Literary Agent?

When you are searching for that lucrative book deal, one question you need to ask is, do you need a literary agent? Well, the answer to this is yes and no. If you want to go down the traditional book publishing route and have your book...

How to Write a Query Letter to a Literary Agent

A query letter is basically a way for you to pitch your idea about your book to a literary agent or indeed a publisher. It is usually only a one page letter which is short, simple and to the point. The query letter should essentially contain...