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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...

How to Use the Media to Increase Your Book Sales

When trying to promote your book, there are a variety of ways available for you to do so. One of the most effective and reliable ways of self-promotion is to use the media; they really do have a powerful voice and presence and can help...

Book Promotion - What Not To Do

As an author you will need to promote your book. However, authors are not promotional gurus, they are writers. So how do you go about this, or more importantly, what should you not do? Not identifying the name of the author either on the eBook cover...

How Indie Authors Can Get Their Books Into Bookstores

The number of indie authors who are deciding to self-publish their books is gradually increasing. However, it is not always easy to market a book and one of the difficulties that self-published authors face is the task of breaking into the traditional bookstore market. However,...

Is Book Promotion for Self-published Authors a Waste of Time?

Promoting your book, whether you are a traditionally published author or a self-published author, is never a waste of time. You need to promote your book for people to know about its existence in order for them to buy it. However, it is even more...

What is a Book Blog Tour?

The book blog tour is not a new phenomenon; they have been around for years. However they seem to have grown in popularity because more people and predominantly authors are now blogging. Basically a book blog tour is a way of promoting an author and...

What Are the Best Ways for an Author to Promote Their Book?

Your book has now been published and the time has arrived for you to promote yourself as an author and to sell that book. So what are the best ways of doing this? The first thing to consider is how much money and time you have...

How to Create an Eye Catching Author Website

Your book has been published and now comes the difficult part as you need to promote your book. Any internet author search will show you that there are an abundance of author websites out there. Every author seems to have a website promoting their books...

How Does an Author Make a Book Trailer?

Many authors now create a book trailer that they use to advertise and create a ‘buzz’ about their book. Basically a book trailer is a short promotional video, similar to that of a movie trailer. The book trailer is a relatively new development and has...

The Power of the Book Promo

Book promotion is a powerful tool for all authors. Promoting your book is truly essential if you want to increase your sales and get your book noticed. After all, if people do not know about your book, how can they buy it? They need to...

Five Internet Marketing Books You Should Read Now

The latest books on Internet marketing depict how social media and online marketing have changed and tell you how to navigate these changes. These are the five Internet marketing books you should read today. #1: The Social Media Side Door: How to Bypass the Gatekeepers to...