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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...

Tips for Making Your Superhero Novel Different

Superheros can be found everywhere. They're so loved that it's a dominant trend. Now is the perfect time to jump on board with your own vision. How can you write a superhero novel and make it different from everything else out there? For a different approach,...

The Ouroboros: The Nobility of Writers

The Ouroboros has continuously had to eat itself in order to survive and, as such, tragically represents the never ending cycle of life and death. Consisting of a snake that gorges on its own tail, the Ouroboros tends to be one of the more obscure topics in today’s...

Lesser Known Punk Genres to Explore

If you're not feeling the usual Steampunk genre, there's several other options that are similar but each has their own twist. Lesser known genres are harder to research, so exploring the novels that are described as such is key. A recent genre called Silkpunk has emerged,...

Tips for Diving into the Steampunk Genre

Steampunk is a cult genre that's often underrated. Steampunk is described as technology that is powered by steam, and often set in Victorian England or Wild West America. The story often includes an alternate history, with well-known events tweaked by gadgets and steam powered inventions. Jules Verne...

The Perfect Time to Tell Your Best Ghost Story

The month of October is full of all things related to Halloween: witches, zombies and ghosts. Everyone is talking about spooky things. Everyone loves a good zombie story, mainly due to the success of The Walking Dead, but where did the ghosts go? They're not...

What Makes a Great Story?

I love reading but due to my busy schedule, I’ve learned to embrace audio books. I can run through several audio books, especially on those days that I spend a lot of time in the car traveling. Initially, I was not a fan, but an...

Time Travel Story Problems

Time travel is an interesting concept that appears most often in science fiction and fantasy genres. However, while anyone can write a time travel story, not everyone can write a good one that makes sense. One of the biggest struggles most authors face when it comes...

How to Write Legal Fanfiction

If you have decided that you want to try your hand at writing fanfiction and posting it online, the first thing you need to do is make sure you are writing legal fanfiction. Fanfiction is when a writer takes the story and/or characters from a...

Taking Inspiration: Fanfiction

The first step in writing a book is always the inspiration; the book starts with the author becoming inspired to write their fiction book. That inspiration is what leads to character creation, plot line creation, and setting creation. Now not all books require inspiration for the...

Tips for Writing Believable Animal Characters

Animals in fiction have always left an impression on readers, from the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland to the tragic story of Old Yeller. They're friends and companions, show human nature, teach life lessons, or simply cause mischief with riddles and disappearing bodies. How...