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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...

10 Ways to Maintain Sanity When Your Book is With the Editor – Part 1

Well done! Your manuscript is complete. You did your homework and found a great editor. You sent your manuscript off and they told you that you would get your edits back in a month. What now? Waiting is not funny. That editor may be the first person...

10 Monsters Feared by Book Editors – Part 2

If the last five monsters didn’t leave you shivering, these will. The Zombie The zombie is hardly alive and really doesn’t want to do too much of the work. In fact, they may not do anything! The zombie takes a long time to accept changes and doesn’t...

10 Monsters Feared by Book Editors – Part 1

It isn’t Hallowe’en yet but the monsters are coming out of the closet, out to haunt the desks of the book editors and mess with their minds. Most editors will tell you that they don’t often see one of these ghouls but, when they do,...

5 Commandments to Abide By – Becoming Published

Writing is an art, a passionate art, a real expression of your creative side, of your personality. What you write is a load of words on a page and every person who reads them will interpret them slightly differently. Writing is the easy bit; it’s...

Get Your Short Story Published – Write a Great Opener

Any kind of writing needs a good opening line but, with a short story, it's even more important – you don’t have much space in which to make an impression on an editor; that first line may be all you have. Imagine that you are...

How to Get Your Short Story Published

There are loads of techniques that can help to get your short story published – using the right dialog, characterizations, tone, mood, action plot development, your pacing and so on are just some of the vital parts to any short story. However, when it comes...

Horses for Courses: The Different Types of Book Publisher

Book publishers come in all sorts of shapes and sizes, something to bear in mind if you ever find yourself in the market for one. Knowing which type of publisher you need can make the job a whole lot easier so cast your eye over...

Writing a Book Title That Sells - Part 3

You’ve done all the hard work on picking a selling title for your book and now you might have to do it all over again for a subtitle!  Before we go into subtitles, think about whether your book really needs one. It is very true...

Writing a Book Title That Sells - Part 2

Got that list written? Good because now it's time to start coming up with those titles. Step 2: Brainstorm Ideas for Titles You can do this on your own or you can do it with a group of people, it's entirely up to you. Use the content...

Writing a Book Title That Sells - Part 1

One of the most important parts to making sure your book stays in people’s minds is by writing an excellent title. Think about the book titled Seabiscuit; a book that shot up the NY Times best-seller listings like the racehorse it was written about. Two...