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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...

Setting Out Your Basic Plot Structure Part 1

Are you settling down to write a novel? Or are you challenging yourself during NaNoWriMo, the National Novel Writing Month? If you are then you will be far too busy getting those words on paper to even think about things like plot structure, your storyline,...

5 Terrible Children’s Book Mistakes Part 4

Now for our final mistake. No Suspense Misconception – Kids' books don’t need suspense and tension! The Cat in The Hat and The Tales of Peter Rabbit didn’t! They sure did! And that is why kids of today are still reading those books now. Take The Tales of Peter...

5 Terrible Children’s Book Mistakes Part 3

The fourth mistake is one that many seasoned writers still make today. Confusion over Point of View Misconception – What on earth does point of view have to do with a children’s book? So many people, including old hands at writing, just can’t grasp how the point of...

5 Terrible Children’s Book Mistakes Part 2

The next misconception is one of the worst mistakes that a children’s book writer can make Too Preachy Misconception – I have far more experience as an adult and I know more than a child reader so I want to write books that will teach a child...

5 Terrible Children’s Book Mistakes Part 1

Most writers think about writing a book for children, with many thinking about the books they loved when they were a child. While there are some truly fantastic children’s books in publication now, there are also a whole lot of misconceptions leading people to believe...

The Use Of Too Much Dialogue

Using dialogue in your novel is, of course, an essential element to enable the reader to get a much better understanding of your character's personality. However, one of the things I have learned since studying the craft of writing, is that overusing dialogue can have...

How to Write a DIY Guide Part 3

3. Organization The third step is deciding on the organization of the DIY material and this will be largely decided by what type of DIY the writer chose to write. Here are some examples of different forms of DIY organization that could be used. Digital Article 1. Introduction...

How to Write a DIY Guide Part 2

Writing Style Once the intended audience is known by the writer, the writing style can then be chosen based on that audience. In this case, writing style refers to word choice, formal or informal writing, and level of education the reader would need to understand...

How to Write a DIY Guide Part 1

Many writers want to write books, articles, and instruction manuals on the topic of DIY (Do It Yourself), yet many writers struggle on how to write these DIYs and on what topic their DIY should teach the reader to do. There are five main steps for DIY...

Do You Make This One Punctuation Mistake? Part 3

Have you worked out what to do? Sentences that are too long with simple subjects and compound predicates do not need commas; they need rewriting. This is how you should write that sentence: “Hannah’s husband Andy draws up building plans for an architect during the week, and he...