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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. Below that are hundreds of articles on topics all authors face in today’s literary landscape. Get help and advice on Writing, Marketing, Publishing, Social Networking 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...

7 Edits to Give Your Writing More Power – Part 3

Ready to carry on? Rule Six – Use Commas Properly Punctuation rules are sometimes complicated but is it necessary to know the difference between a Harvard, Oxford and a serial comma? No – they are all the same! Be sparing in your use if you want but...

7 Edits to Give Your Writing More Power – Part 2

So far, we looked at grammar expletives and weak verbs but what about weak adjectives? Rule Three – Don’t Use Weak Adjectives Weak adjectives take the power from your work the same way that weak verbs do. Use powerful adjectives to describe pronouns and nouns and be aware...

7 Edits to Give Your Writing More Power – Part 1

Did you know that your favorite authors may not write any better than you do? They may have a more successful end product than yours but the first draft is often no better than any of your own first attempts at writing. Your first draft...

11 Common Blogging Mistakes that Waste Time – Part 3

Well, we are here, the last three blogging mistakes to avoid if you want to keep your readers and not waste their precious time. Mistake Nine – Your Topic No Longer Interests You And if it doesn’t interest you, why would it interest your readers? When you...

11 Common Blogging Mistakes that Waste Time – Part 2

Blogging is hard work but your readers deserve quality content. Let’s continue with the mistakes you mustn’t make. Mistake Four – You Are Only Writing for SEO If you write for SEO, your readers will be bored stupid. You are writing for roots, not humans, and your...

11 Common Blogging Mistakes that Waste Time – Part 1

These days, we all suffer from a bit of information overload because there is so much of it out there. Press a button and you have access to tons of ideas, information, blogs and news, more than you could ever take in. Once information was quite...

Reading Books to Write a Book – Part 2

There are writers of all levels, of all experiences and abilities, and we all tend to fall into one of three categories: Novice Writer The new writer, the one who woke up one morning and a switch had been flipped; now the ideas are pouring like a...

Reading Books to Write a Book – Part 1

How many of you have a stack of writing books, half-read or untouched? Got any more stashed away anywhere? How often do you go through the lists of writing skills books on Amazon, looking for that one book that will change your life? You click...

Post-Apocalyptic Society: Breaking the Mold

Society in any genre of fiction is a tricky thing to build, almost as difficult as building a world. But in a post-apocalyptic society, the world we know is still there, it's just a shell of its former self and so are the people. It is...

Horrific Inspirations: The Crusades

In The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco, Brother William of Baskerville must uncover the cause behind a series of strange deaths, with the setting being during the time of the Crusades. The Crusades Through Arab Eyes by Amin Maalouf is dedicated to telling the...