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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...

Is it a Memoir or an Autobiography?

Despite being closely related, there are key differences between memoirs and autobiographies. One outstanding difference is the timeline that each covers. Autobiographies are systematic and include the person’s experiences in every stage of their lives. Starting from childhood and teenage years, they progress to the character’s...

5 Tips to Jazzing Up Your Sentences Part 3

And so we get to part 3 and the final tip on jazzing your sentences up. By now you should be comfortable playing about with those sentences and seeing what you can come up with so we’re going to take it to the top level...

5 Tips to Jazzing Up Your Sentences Part 2

Are you happy with that? Then it's time to take things up a notch. Combine Independent and Dependent Clauses in One Sentence. Dependent clauses, otherwise called subordinate clauses, cannot stand on their own, despite having a subject and verb that work together. Why? Because they start with...

5 Tips to Jazzing Up Your Sentences Part 1

Are you the kind of writer that uses the same kinds of sentences all the time? Do you think that might be just a little bit monotonous? Think of your writing as being a bass drum, beating steadily with no percussion and no other instruments. Now...

Setting Out Your Basic Plot Structure Part 2

Welcome back. We ended the first part looking at all the parts that make up the plot structure of a story and now we need to look a little deeper into those: Exposition – you describe the setting, where you were, who was with you, what...

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...