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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...

Why Subtext Is Important

More often than not it's not what you say, but rather how you say it. A couple of complimentary words, with the correct manner of speaking, can turn into a sarcastic put-down. Of the eight components of speech, the subtext is likely the most vital...

The Most Evil Characters In Literature

There are many villains in literature, but those who follow, in my opinion, are the epitome of evil. They have the characteristics that present-day villains are based upon.  Satan in Paradise Lost by John Milton. Year: 1667 - The ultimate villain in literature. Milton's continuation of this fallen angel is a...

Why You Should Write Erotica

There’s a reason why we indulge in guilty pleasures behind closed doors. For instance, some people like crocheting, even if it hurts their image. Others like watching a certain TV show, such Toddlers and Tiaras or Keeping Up With the Kardashians. But for many readers...

The Benefits of Writing a Clean Romance

Nowadays, when you look at adult or young adult romance books, there’s often sexual encounters, or even sex, somewhere in the pages. Whenever someone notices their true love interest, it’s usually by their looks. A friend the protagonist knows and truly cares about can begin...

Creating Character Conflict

Every novel that has ever been written involves characters interacting with one another. Even when a novel's storyline is around loneliness, you may find a character has a relationship with an inanimate object or animal. Without character interaction, the story cannot move forward, and there...

The All-Important First Chapter

When writing my debut novel, Freedom for Me: A Chinese Yankee, I struggled mightily with the opening chapter. I knew I wanted to place my protagonist, Thomas, in the middle of a battle to give the book a dramatic opening and lay the groundwork for...

Why Diversity is Important and How You Can Get it Right: Part Two

Characters are people. Even when a character is a dog or an exotic alien, we are still writing about the human experience from a human perspective. The most important detail to keep in mind when creating characters is that people are people well before they...

Why Diversity is Important and How You Can Get it Right: Part One

The last few years have shown a growing trend towards diversity in both the characters featured in books as well as the authors writing them. This movement is still gaining momentum, but the contrast it’s already produced in the world of fiction novels is striking. However,...

The Brevity of Love

I recently had the pleasure of reading Straight Uphill: A Tale of Love and Chocolate by Jess Wells. It was a story about a mother who had recently lost her son in a bus accident. After everything that’s happened, she decides to go to Italy, where...

The Art Of Good Storytelling

Many writers do not pay a great deal of time to the art of storytelling in their novels. But it is the creation of the story that will really catch a publisher's eye, and make them request your manuscript to read. Your story has to...