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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...

Essential Tips for Writing a Fantasy Novel Part 2

Tip #5 Define the Limits Even though some of the characters in the book possess supernatural abilities, there should be a limit to their abilities. An undefeatable foe will make the reader become bored and will do little in establishing a realistic conflict where either side could...

Essential Tips for Writing a Fantasy Novel Part 1

This article contains a few tips that you may want to review when writing a fantasy novel. Tip #1 Determine which category your fantasy novel falls into There are different fantasy subgenres. They include dark fantasy, fairy tale fantasy, contemporary fantasy or even historical fantasy; the list is long....

Writing Young Adult Fiction

Young Adult fiction refers to a wide range of genres written to a specific readership that falls within a certain age group, mainly 12-18 years. Included in this article are key points and insights to think about when writing for young adults. Audience Writing for young adults...

Defining and Maintaining your Writing Routine

Creating and maintaining any productive habit can be difficult and many times frustrating. When established, however, these habits can be extremely beneficial in relation to adopting a more productive lifestyle. As a writer, it can be challenging to define a writing routine that works for...

Tips for Writing an Epilogue

An epilogue is the part of a story that appears at the end of a book and is meant to conclude or comment on the main story. Depending on how effectively it is used, epilogues can have great impact by making the story unforgettable. Tip #1 Use...

4 Ways to Write Authentic War Stories

The beginning of the past century was marked by a world war and less than three decades later the world would experience the horrors of another world war. Apart from these major wars, other wars were fought and more people perished. The impact these and other...

How to Flesh Out the Main Character

Let’s say you are working on a novel. You decide to make it a crime novel. When writing any manuscript for a proposed novel, an important element of the story is the main character. Just like in a movie script or a Broadway play, it...

How to Fall in Love with the Writing Process Part 3

The last three questions you need to ask yourself are perhaps the most important: Four – Are you open to change? There are three stages of change a character must pass through – enlightenment, where a new perspective is found; decision, not always a good one, that...

How to Fall in Love with the Writing Process Part 2

On to the next question: Two – Is your focus on the small details or on the bigger picture? If you aren’t quite sure of the answer, think about this. You ask someone to fetch you a pen; do you just ask for the pen or do...

How to Fall In Love With The Writing Process Part 1

Do you love your characters? Do you find your plots exciting? Perhaps more importantly, do you love the art of creating something? If you can answer yes to all three, you have a real passion for writing. If you can’t then you don’t. But it isn’t...