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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...

New to Self-publishing? What to Expect

Thanks to the explosion of the eBook market, many authors have taken the plunge into the world of self-publishing. It’s exciting but also overwhelming when you swim in new waters and it’s hard to know what to expect. I offer this list as a way...

You Have Finished Your Book – Where Do You Go From Here?

Congratulations, you’ve finished your book. The writing, revision, editing, proofing and polishing is all done. You finally get to take a breather and bask in your accomplishment. Feels good, doesn’t it? Well, if you’re self-publishing the journey has only begun. You’ve got the product – your...

The Simplicity Of Self Publishing

 I remember the days when I began writing my novel. It was so difficult to find a publisher or agent that wanted to take a gamble on a first-time novelist. They are, of course, in the business to make money and gambling on an unknown...

Negative Feedback Is Good

I felt an article on receiving feedback from agents and editors when you receive a rejection on your manuscript was an important discussion to have. I have received both acceptance emails and rejection replies, some very scathing ones. When you receive rejection, it’s not an easy...

Indie Authors vs. Traditional Authors

I remember the time I picked up my first horror book. My parents owned a nail salon at the time, and since our family had a lot of bad luck with babysitters, my dad decided to leave us at the local library whenever he needed to...

How to Put Together a Good Cookbook

Writing a good cookbook is about more than just having a bunch of good recipes. There are so many recipes currently available for people to access for free on the internet that it takes marketing, originality, organization, and of course good recipes as well. Before...

How To Avoid Publishing Scams

You’ve finished that manuscript and you’ve worked hard to get it polished and ready. Now you are sure it will sell and be loved by many. The problem is…how do you publish it?  If you’ve heard of the “indie” world and think you want to hire...

Interviewing an Editor

Many authors and writers wonder if they really have to interview an editor before hiring them. The answer is always yes and it does not matter if the author or writer’s best friend worked with the editor in the past or not because, when it...

How to Hire an Editor

You have decided to hire an editor for your book, article, or other piece of writing. However, now that you have made the decision to hire an editor, you are probably wondering how to go about hiring one. Many authors and editors struggle when it comes...

How to Convert a Blog into a Book

If you have decided to turn your popular blog into a book, it takes more than just copying your blog entries into a word document and calling it a book. Instead, you have to take the content from your blog and convert it into content...