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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...

Demons in Fiction: Part Two

Demons are an interesting bunch. They make deals, cast our souls into eternal damnation, and, occasionally, provide entertainment for us weary humans. While there are many spirits in history who were demoted to the simple abstract thought of demons, as modern writers, we stick with...

How to Evoke any Reader’s Emotions

Ever read a story that kept lingering in your mind so that you just could not shake it off? Most great books have a lingering effect on the reader. When one reads a book, there are two possible effects. The reader either feels like a...

How to Write a Unique Spooky Story

Writing a spooky story can be difficult with so many different monster books and movies that hog all the best monsters. If you choose zombies, your story is automatically going to be compared to The Walking Dead and Z Nation; if you choose vampires you are...

Demons in Fiction: Part One

Demons are an essential part of human morality. From the popular image of the devil on your shoulder, to the beings written in occultist texts, such as the Malleus Maleficarum and the Keys of Solomon, there’s no doubt demons play a crucial part in human...

Angels in Fiction: Part 2

As you may or may not know, angels are incredibly powerful beings. They’re also very popular, so much so that we often use them in our writing. With their haunting prowess, their proclamations, and most importantly, their divine judgements we just can’t help using them in...

Angels in Fiction: Part One

There’s no doubt that many modern day audiences have fallen in love with the concept of angels. From the Gothic elegance of the fallen, to the majestic glory of the archangels, angels can be found as the muses of artists, writers, scientists, and the general...

Nature Writing

To some people, nature is but a mere obstruction to humanity’s progress, what with the protests, the activists, the lobbyists, ectc. But to others, nature provides a constant comfort, a lifeboat in a sea of uncertainty. However mysterious it may seem, the very aspect of...

Why You Should Be a Book Reviewer

As Stephen King once said, the path to becoming a successful writer involves a lot of reading, and a lot of writing. It’s a demanding profession that requires us to be critical of ourselves in order to mature as writers. Though we may, if at...

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...