Author Services

Author Articles

Hundreds of Helpful Articles

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...

Fitting Settings - What to consider when selecting a Setting for your Story (Part 2)

(Continuation of Part 1…) A point of consideration is the creation of themes that match and showcase the setting’s unique features. Matching the two will elevate the story a notch and provide much-needed flow to the narrative. Another option is to use a setting that sharply...

Building Up Your Writing Bio

Creative writing requires patience but, on the other hand, it’s also a good idea to get your writing bio built up fairly quickly. How do you do that? Develop a Strategy for Submission. When you send your work out, you are making opportunities so it follows...

How to Choose The Right Critique Partner

Most writers have suffered from a bad critique at some time in their career and they know how much damage can be done by it. Choosing the right critique partner will ensure that your feedback is genuine and constructive, helping you rather than hindering. Why You...

Top Tips On Meeting Deadlines

It doesn’t matter whether you are writing as a career or for your own pleasure, deadlines are important. Without one your work has no direction but, sadly that one word strikes fear into the heart of many writers and it can cause them to slow...

Copyright Protection – What Is It And How Do You Get It?

All writers should understand the fundamentals of copyright law. It’s the only way to protect what you write before you sign all your rights away. It is, in all honesty, a straightforward matter to copyright anything you write, be it a poem, a short story,...

How a Parent Can Still Be a Creative Writer

A writer needs to write every single day. They all do it, from first timers to old hands. But writers are only human and when a young family is involved, it can cause huge disruption, not just to normal life but to your writing life...

Practical Tips To Help You Write Your First Novel – Part 2

We’ve established that writing is not easy and not everyone can do it. You are doing it and it can be so frustrating to find yourself stuck on something or struggling to stay focused. Continue reading my tips for kickstarting your creative juices and staying...

Practical Tips To Help You Write Your First Novel – Part 1

It doesn’t matter if this is your first novel or a second one that you are struggling with, a bit of help in getting your focus back on track never goes amiss. The practical tips here will help you to go from your very first word...

7 Reasons Why Writing a Book Makes You Cool

To some people, writers are nerds; they spend all day in front of a computer; they get upset when you use the wrong grammatical terms and so on but you know that when you finish that book you’ve been working on for months, you feel like...

How to Break Up with Someone the Write Way

It’s not easy to break up with someone. Whether it is because you don’t like their attitude, you’ve fallen out of love with them, or you’ve noticed an unspeakable habit about them you can’t get past, we don’t like hurting the people we care about....