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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...

Literary Translation: Writing with a Difference

Literary translators, like writers, come from many different backgrounds. Many literary translators are writers themselves. For them, translation is a natural extension of their work. Others may be academics or professional translators who do it to earn a living. But whoever they are, they all...

How To Complete Your Book

You have spent months, even years struggling to create the perfect characters, with detailed backstories, plots, subplots and the right amount of conflict but somehow the ending is no closer in sight. What is the solution? We all know that frustrating feeling of not knowing how to finally complete a...

Ghostwriting: Write For Those Who Can't

You're an experienced writer and an adaptable person. You're easy to talk to because you know how to listen. You would love nothing more than to make your living writing, but you can't leave your job as you only find short writing gigs which don't...

How to Encourage your Child to Write

If you have identified that your child could become a great writer, what are the ways you can encourage them to develop their gift? This does not mean that you cannot start writing when you are older. Still, the sooner someone can start developing their...

Finishing What You Started - Part 2

Seek help Sometimes you cannot do it alone and you may need help. Even though asking for help may require some amount of humility, sometimes it is the only way to move forward. In the end, you need to remember to put yourself first and take...

Finishing What You Started - Part 1

It is okay to feel stuck sometimes, in certain instances, it is even beneficial. However, when we constantly take up projects and leave them incomplete then move on to something else, this can hinder our success. Part of being successful involves the ability to finish...

Techniques for Writing When You Don't Have a Lot of Time

Most writers don't have the luxury of writing full-time. If you have a day job and a family, and very little time to call your own, then you know how difficult it is to find five minutes to take a shower without someone having a...

How to Write Comedy When You Can't Tell a Joke

You can't tell a joke and you've given up trying years ago. The embarrassed nods and forced laughs of friends and family are just not worth the torture of spluttering your way through the lines and then excusing yourself to hide your shame in the...

Humanity and Nature

The Willow Maid, by Erutan, is a song about a young hunter who meets a nymph in the forest. The man falls in love with her, and decides to pursue her romantically. However, the nymph refuses his advances, simply because she cannot leave the forest,...

Nature's Muse: The Nymph

There’s no doubt nature is important. What with the environment being the center of politics, war, and even civil unrest, many people have come to respect and appreciate the resources that the earth provides. Musicians, artists, and writers can find nature refreshing, majestic. Nature’s beauty...