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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...

Continuity of Scenes

Scenes can sometimes overlap to the next episode of the story. When this happens, regardless of how long or short you want your scene to be, it needs to have a goal and conflict. The conflict can serve as a cliffhanger that continues in the...

Writing That Will Never Get Done

Whenever I meet people and tell them I’m a writer, the most common reaction is to tell me that they wanted to become a writer or at least write something. But they would add that they do not have the time or they feel they...

Why Write?

It’s a question that has been asked many times, yet it continues to persist and it becomes hypothetical because writers know why they write. For the benefit of those who do not understand the nature of the writing vocation, I am throwing in my ten...

How Plotting Helped Me To Overcome Writer's Block

I have always been a pantser in that I tend to write the ideas as they pop into my head and worry about it making sense later. It worked for me in the past before I decided to take things seriously as a writer and...

Flashbacks and Insights

Many writers use italics for flashback and introspection, while others do not bother. This confuses the novice writer. As always, writing is an art that must never be confined in strict conformities. Flashbacks and insights are two different things. Flashback refers to an event in...

Authenticating Your Historical Fiction

How much research should go into your historical fiction in order to make it credible and authentic? Whether you are writing a short story or a novel, the research should be enough to make your reader feel transported to the time period. Yet how much...

Stories Must Begin With Action

You open your story with the protagonist sitting by the windowsill watching the clouds roll by, or standing on the rooftop looking below at the people walking past. This kind of opening does not offer any action or drama. The character is not doing anything...

Misconceptions About First Person Narration

Visit your local bookstore and sift through the titles of young adult fiction. It is surprising to see that a huge chunk of the YA market is written in the first person point of view. The first person narration conveys narration with optimum effect. Yet...

Character Development Through the Passage of Time

Character attitudes and sentiments must develop as the story progresses. Whether a character saturates the pages with his presence, or if he has disappeared for a few pages or more (even for a few hours), the character must exhibit something new or redescribed to align...

Should You Quit Writing?

Writing as a vocation is a love-hate relationship. It is an art often romanticized as an elusive muse that needs taming in order for it to flow. This rings true for the writer who is yet to be published. At some point, an aspiring man...