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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...

Get Noticed By Being Exposed (Traditional Publishing)

In my previous article, Get Noticed By Being Exposed (Self-Publishing), we talked about the various elements of self-publishing. Let’s recap a little bit and talk about writing and touch on some elements of self-publishing to bring the point home to traditional publishing. As in the...

Get Noticed By Being Exposed (Self-Publishing)

You have created a work of art. In the past, you’ve shared some of your work with others that have enjoyed your work. Now you are looking to publish your work to get it exposed farther afield. There are so many pathways to choose from. Which...

Should I Purchase My Own ISBN Or Use Amazon’s?

You have created your first book about business. You have a passion for educating business owners about all of the aspects of doing business, from deciding on the best legal business structure (i.e. Limited Liability Company (LLC)) and how to create a brand that speaks...

Indie Publishing: A Veritable Cash Cow, Right?

Back in the old days, circa 2009 when Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing was in its infancy, authors were publishing books left, right and center, barely able to keep up with the sudden demand for ebooks, which quickly led to the initial Tsunami of Crap populating Amazon’s earlier online offerings....

What Is An ISBN And Why Is It Important?

What Is An ISBN And Why Is It Important? ISBN is an acronym for International Standard Book Number - a unique identifier barcode given to a commercial book. Each variation and each edition of the same book gets its own ISBN. If a book has a...

Should a Blog be Made into a Book

Blogs are typically websites or web pages that are run by an individual person or a small group of people and updated regularly in an informal writing style, while books are considered to be a literary composition written by an author or authors in a...

How to Avoid Editor/Editing Scams

Whether you want to hire an individual editor or an editing service to edit your writing, it is important to be very careful, as there are many editors and editing services that are in fact mere scams. When considering an editor or editing service, there...

How To Self-publish Fiction When Your Budget Is Almost Nil

Editors and proof readers are worth their weight in gold: if you could afford them you wouldn’t be reading this. Now is not the time to be shy. Ask friends and work colleagues to read your book and be brutally honest about what they like...

How Fiverr Can Help You on the Way to Publication

Fiverr is a global website that acts as an online marketplace where buyers and sellers can exchange money for gigs (tasks/jobs). The name Fiverr comes from the fact that the starting cost of all jobs is $5. The main categories of gigs offered on Fiverr...

Paul Giamatti's Pool - Self-publishing tips

"Lady in the Water," have you seen it? It was that movie about a mermaid that lives in Paul Giamatti's pool. It was written, directed and even co-starred M. Night Shyamalan. Night based the movie on a fairytale he made up for his kids. He...