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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
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)
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 Write Someone Changing Their Mind Without Making It Look Like a Plot Device New!
A character changes their mind. They suddenly support the plan they spent the entire story opposing. They forgive someone they hated. They abandon a belief they built their identity around. And the reader thinks: Well, the plot needed them to. Changing someone’s mind is one of the...
How to Write Awkward Silence Without Writing "There Was an Awkward Silence" New!
Picture this. Two characters are standing in a kitchen; the conversation has just curdled, and neither one knows what to say next. That silence is doing enormous emotional work, but the second you write the sentence "there was an awkward silence," all that tension collapses...
The Art of Letting Characters Misunderstand Each Other New!
Here's a simple way to create conflict without inventing another villain, disaster, or dramatic betrayal: let two characters misunderstand each other. Not because they're stupid. Not because they weren't listening. Because they're bringing completely different assumptions to the same conversation. A character says, "I'm fine," meaning...
The Conversation After the Important Conversation New!
Picture a couple leaving a therapist's office after finally naming the thing that's been wrong between them. You'd expect relief, or at least clarity. Instead, they bicker about parking, or who forgot to feed the meter, because the real conversation left them raw and they...
How to Write an Argument Where Nobody Says What They're Actually Angry About New!
Picture two characters snapping at each other over whose turn it is to do the dishes. The dishes are not the problem. One of them feels invisible in the relationship, and the other is terrified of being blamed for it. So the fight happens sideways, through...
Give Your Hero One Completely Unheroic Fear New!
Here's a simple way to make a heroic character feel human: give them a fear they would be embarrassed to admit. Not fear of death. Not fear of failure. Not fear of losing the person they love. Give your fearless warrior a fear of pigeons. Give...
How Characters Lie Differently to Friends, Strangers, and Themselves New!
Here's a useful character test: ask your protagonist the same uncomfortable question three times, once in front of a stranger, once with their closest friend, and once when they're completely alone. You probably shouldn't get the same answer. People lie for different reasons depending on who is...
The Petty Grudge: Using Tiny Resentments to Build Big Characters New!
Here's a simple character test: what completely insignificant thing does your protagonist still hold a grudge about? Maybe someone always takes the seat beside them on the morning shuttle. Maybe a colleague once borrowed their favourite tool and returned it slightly damaged. Maybe their brother...
How to Give a Character a Secret They Don't Know They Have New!
Most secrets in fiction work because the character is hiding something from everyone else. But there's a rarer, sharper kind: one the character is hiding from themselves. This is the buried truth, the fact they've built an entire personality around avoiding. It might be a forgotten...
What Your Character's Browser History Says About Them New!
Here's a surprisingly useful character test: imagine someone gets access to your protagonist's browser history. What would they learn that the character would never admit out loud? The answer can reveal far more than a page of backstory. People search for things when they are...