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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...

Logline Mistakes To Avoid: Part Two

When you are creating a logline for your novel, it is tempting to go down the road of the clichéd logline similar to the film trailer. This is the biggest mistake writers can make, because it screams to the publisher that you are a novice...

Logline Mistakes To Avoid

Writing loglines reveals not only how well we know the main story behind our novel, but how well we can entice the publisher with just a few sentences. The truth is that most agents and publishers will read the first few lines of your query letter...

The Art Of Good Conversation

Sometimes you are faced with social situations where you have to make conversation with a complete stranger. For many of us, including myself, the thought of walking into a room full of strangers and starting a conversation is abhorrent. As I approach the person, you can literally...

Build Relationships: Do Not Network

What exactly is networking? The term is both specific and obscure. Does it mean attending parties with other writers, or maybe having lunch together and discussing storylines and character development? Does it mean that you attend functions? What should you wear to these events? Do...

It Is All In The Spine (Part 2)

In It Is All In the Spine Part I, you were introduced to the importance of creating a marriage between a great story and the book cover. It is the cover that will speak for your work. The cover attracts and draws in the reader. On...

How To Find A Brilliant Idea To Blog About

One of the downsides of being a freelance writer is the times that creativity seems to have disappeared. Sometimes it causes you to doubt yourself and your abilities, maybe even doubt whether this whole professional writing thing is really for you. “What on earth am I going...

It Is All In The Spine

If you are book lover like me, you read a lot. The types of books that I read vary from children's, mystery, suspense and business to biographies. For me, books provide several avenues for discovering new worlds to educate me on things that surround me....

How To Pitch Your Manuscript In A Meeting

When you are chasing the dream of becoming a successful published author, you may not realize how close you are. In every figurative race, there will be that moment when you get close enough to feel the finish line. You just know that you are...

Making Money with Affiliate Marketing – Part 3

Welcome back once more. In the third part of this series, we are going to look at how you can build up your business. Study Other Affiliates Learn from what they do. That’s by far the easiest way to get some experience and the best way to...

Making Money with Affiliate Marketing – Part 2

Welcome back to my four-part series on getting started with affiliate marketing. In the first part, we looked at two of the ways that you can get your feet wet and now we look at four more. Choose Your Niche All affiliate marketers have one or more...