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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...

Choosing the Best POV for Your Story – Part 1

A POV is, quite simply, a Point of View and every story has one. It is one of the more important parts of your story and you need to decide what it’s going to be before you start writing. For some people, the Point of View...

The Writing Process - Part 3

Just two more steps to go. Step Four – Editing Once you have your feedback and have finished your revision, the next logical step is to edit your work. This involves going through your work, sentence by sentence, word by word so don’t do it until all...

The Writing Process - Part 2

Ready for the next part of the writing process? Step Two – Writing You have your plan so sit yourself down and begin your draft. Do not pay any mind to grammar, punctuation, spelling or even word count at this stage – that can come later. Don’t...

The Writing Process - Part 1

For many, sitting down and writing comes naturally; for others, it's hard work. What many people don’t realize is that there is a natural process to writing and many will follow that process without even thinking about it. If you are a new writer, or you...

The Dangers Writers Face – Sitting For Too Long

Picture this; you settle down first thing in the morning to write and 8 hours later you are still there. You have hardly moved but you’ve had such a productive day that it really doesn’t matter. Does it? Well, yes it does. While it is...

Story Writing 101 - Part 1

Stories are an essential part of life; we’ve been telling them for millions of years but how do you write a really great story? Stories are a sequence of events, inextricably linked by cause and effect. Stories can be true or they can be fictional...

Story Writing 101 - Part 2

Three – The Life Story Life stories are true although they can be written in a similar way to fictional stories. They can be biographical, i.e. about another person, or autobiographical – about yourself. Most life stories tend to be the same length as a novel,...

Co-Op: A Warning About Co-Writing

Friendship. It is a difficult bond to break… unless of course you become roommates or idiotically decide to write a book together without considering all the aspects. This is a guide and a warning about writing with your close friend or friends. Preface: The idea is introduced...

Food in Fantasy Worlds

Food. It’s a huge part of our day to day lives. Obviously, we need food to survive, but it also goes much deeper than that. For humans, food is a part of our personal and cultural identities. It tells us a lot more than just personal tastes....

Living a Writer’s Life

So you want to be a writer but there’s more to it than churning out one book. Living a writer’s life is not easy but you can do it if you follow these tips: A Professional Writer Writes – A Lot You must have very disciplined habits,...