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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...

Character Inspiration: TV Shows and Movies (Part 2)

Personality Creating a personality for a character from scratch can be one of the hardest parts of writing as not only does the writer have to come up with a personality, but also that the personality needs to match up with the background of the character....

Character Inspiration: TV Shows and Movies (Part 1)

The first step in writing a book is always the inspiration; the book starts with the author becoming inspired to write their book. Once the writer has become inspired to write their story, they generally begin by writing an outline or a rough draft and...

Why Rewriting Is Essential

Oscar Wilde once proclaimed that he spent all morning adding a comma and all afternoon deleting it. As a writer, it is important to learn the art of analysing your own work, and not only relying on the use of a professional book editor. A novel...

The Month of Violence: April

Strangely enough, April has often been considered to be the start of a violent season. From terrorist attacks to mass shootings, there's a certain horror that April brings, more so than any other month. Perhaps it's because April is usually when the weather starts to...

Poetry Styles

There are many different poetry styles. Whether it be a simple ballad, or a Shakespearean sonnet, or the many forms of free-style, poetry is a well loved form of art. It records our truest emotions, and while it can be a bit embarrassing for people...

Literature’s Darkest: The 120 Days of Sodom

I went to a summer college camp once at Southern Methodist University. Although I met a lot of good people there, there was one girl that particularly stood out to me. She recommended a book that I couldn’t help but pick up for myself. That...

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: The Science Behind Society

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a wonderfully frightful novel that has led the world down some dark paths. From debates on what the duality of human nature means, to the advent of science and technology, to the fact that we’ve...

Making Your Blog Articles Engaging

When you are writing content for your blog, you have probably put a lot of time into researching every aspect of your work. You have dedicated hours making the post interesting, intriguing and informative. You finally hit the publish button, hoping to get some interaction...

How to Write an Autobiography and Why You Should - Part 2

Why You Should Write an Autobiography So many stories have gone untold; others become distorted with time when told by different people. This brings us to one of the most obvious reasons why people write autobiographies. Simply put, they want to tell their story from their own...

Why Writing In The Morning Is Perfect

What is the one thing you want to achieve tomorrow? Maybe this is the most important thing you want to achieve this year? If you are a novelist, or a creative person of any kind, then the one ambition you may have is to finally...