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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

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)

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...

6 Literary Techniques That You May Not Have Heard Of

Imagine watching an artist as they create a painting. As they paint, you notice that the painting is made up of layers, each one more beautiful than the last. And the same is true of writing. Both artists and writers use different techniques and tools...

5 Tips for Writing a Novel Synopsis

No writer likes the job of coming up with a synopsis of their novel but it is a necessary evil. A synopsis, at its most basic, is a summary of the book and agents want to see them because they want to see if your...

5 Tips for Writing a Novel Synopsis

No writer likes the job of coming up with a synopsis of their novel but it is a necessary evil. A synopsis, at its most basic, is a summary of the book and agents want to see them because they want to see if your...

10 Techniques to Add Dimension to Your Characters – Part 4

And now we reach the final two techniques. By now, your character should be starting to take shape; he or she should have some real depth and that dimension you have been looking for is beginning to appear. These last techniques will give you what...

10 Techniques to Add Dimension to Your Characters – Part 3

Without further ado, let’s move on to technique number 6. Eavesdrop on Your Character We’ve all done it in the real world; listened in on conversations that were nothing to do with us and, to be fair, it is one of the best ways of gathering ideas...

10 Techniques to Add Dimension to Your Characters – Part 2

If you didn’t get enough help from the first two techniques, get on and try these ones: Breaking and Entering If spying doesn’t get you what you want, don’t be disheartened and don’t stop there! Break into your main character’s home and have a look through everything....

10 Techniques to Add Dimension to Your Characters – Part 1

Characters are tricky things to write. You may have given them a fantastic story; you may have mapped out every exciting part of their lives but, even when those characters feel like your best friend, even when you know all you think there is to...

Feeling vs Emotion – Part 2

Generating Feelings With feeling, introspection is needed and this makes it necessary to identify with a character and empathize with what they are facing. However, you must remember that the action in the story and the characters are merely the vehicles the reader will use to...

Feeling vs Emotion – Part 1

When you write and publish a book, you want to evoke some kind of emotion or feeling from your readers. There is a subtle difference between writing feeling and writing emotion. Feeling is the kind of emotion that has been refined and is habitual; feeling...

A Cruise – The Perfect Vacation for Writers Part 2

A cruise is a wonderful vacation for anyone but for writers, it is the absolute best. It gives you time to unwind, to be inspired and to get some serious work done with few interruptions. You Meet People From All Over Most of the employees on a...