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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...

Two Best Ways To Get Noticed

Writing a book is the easy part compared to marketing. So, you have a well edited book with a stunning cover, but how do you get it noticed? My first book was published in 1998 and I now have twenty published books in a range...

The simple and inexpensive way to get your book in bookstores today!

The Porter Brothers, armed only with determination and a good long distance plan, called 1,100 book stores and got their book placed in… 1,100 bookstores! We hope their story will give you the information and inspiration you need to repeat their success. Porter Brothers Barn Storming...

Making Great Book Video Promotions

By Kim McDougall www.castelane.com Our children are growing up in a multimedia world. Teens get most of their information from YouTube. Not only do people seem to relate better to visual information but so does Google. As an owner and partner of YouTube, Google ranks videos higher...

20 Tips to Marketing Success

"20 Tips to Marketing Success" by Rhonda Fischer, self-published author of “Randy Kazandy, Where are your Glasses?” She started like anyone else, but with some creativity and lot of hard work she is now in talks with Random House and working a possible movie deal. Hello!...

How to Market Your New Book Award

You won an award, congratulations! Now what? Okay, let's begin with congratulations! Clearly, writing a book in itself is an award-worthy feat. For that alone, you should take a bow and acknowledge your accomplishment. In 2014, I was awarded my first medal for my memoir Frock Off:...

Author Q and A Sessions Can Help Market Your Book

Every author should hold a Q & A session to help market their book. It is a way for readers and any potential readers to gain an insight into the person who has written their favourite book; it is an opportunity to ask questions and...

How to Use Email Marketing For Blogging

Combining blogging and email marketing is like combining chocolate and honeycomb. The melting taste of chocolate and the hard crunching sensation of honey comb are both great when eaten individually. When you combine them together you get a crunchy bar. You get the same kind...

Blogging: Can you Make Money From It?

The short answer is, yes. Some people are making a lot of money right now. Some people are making six figures, and that's something that you can strive for. That won't manifest at first, however. You are going to find that you will need to...

The Best Way to Add Backlinks to Your Blog

So you want to start generating traffic to your blog? Well, as you're probably aware, the search engines are going to be your best bet for long-term, sustainable sources of visitors. One of the fundamental factors toward gaining higher rankings within the search engines is...

5 Free Ways to Promote your Blog

Once you have found your niche, visit other blog sites in your niche and share with them what you know. Get them to want to look at your blog site as well. If you show them that you can offer them unique and helpful content,...