Author Services

Author Articles

Hundreds of Helpful Articles

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 Reviews When You’re Just Starting Out – Part 1

So you’ve written a fantastic book, a true masterpiece, even if you do say so yourself. It’s flying off the shelves on Amazon or any other online store you have it with and the public is loving it. But there aren’t any reviews for it...

Why You Need To Have An Email List - Part 1

Today, more authors control more of their work than they ever have done. Social media and digital media are incredibly popular, easy to use and provide authors with the means to market and publish their work to an extent that they feel able to. It...

Why You Need an Email List Right now - Part 2

So Why Are Email Lists Important? After all, there are plenty of ways that you can contact your readers. Find the right blog and they will review your work, or even interview you; your book can be advertised in subscription emails from promotional services and, in...

How To Craft The Perfect Tweet To Market Your Book – Part 2

Now we’ve sorted out the ideal length for your tweets, we’ll move on to the next part of the formula. Hashtags If you want new followers to see your tweets, use hashtags. For example, using #cookie in your tweet will mean that anyone searching for tweets about...

How To Craft The Perfect Tweet To Market Your Book – Part 1

As a writer, you know how important it is to choose the right words. Your job is to get your message across to your readers at the right time and in the right way and knowing which words to use is key. However, while you...

7 Simple Steps To A Powerful Author Facebook Page – Part 2

When you have your photograph right, you can move on and start building your page. Step Four - Add Some Detail Beneath the profile picture is an “About” section and to add to it, just click on it or on the button to “Update Page Info”. It's...

7 Simple Steps To A Powerful Author Facebook Page – Part 1

Facebook is one of the best platforms for advertising; not only can you reach thousands of people, your friends and family can share your work, recommend it to others without you needing to do much. Facebook is also user-friendly and it takes little effort to...

Facebook For Authors: Pages vs. Profiles – Part 2

Welcome back, we are talking about the difference between a page and a profile on Facebook and which one is the best for you as an author. Shortly we will start looking at some of the unique pros and cons each has but first, let’s...

Facebook For Authors: Pages vs. Profiles – Part 3

The final part of this mini-series looks at the unique cons of both pages and profiles, finishing up with the verdict. The Cons With a profile, you are limited to 5,000 friends. At this point, you won't get notifications of any new friend requests and you could...

Facebook For Authors: Pages vs. Profiles – Part 1

Facebook is a fantastic tool for an author because it allows you to promote your work in as easy or as complex a way that suits you. You might want to drop in a mention of a book release or you might want your fans to...