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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...

What is Fanfiction?

Fanfiction is when a writer takes the story and/or characters from a movie, TV show, book, comic, or other work and repurposes them in their own story. There are numerous websites that host huge archives of fanfiction that are organized based on the type of...

What to Write about in Religion

Religion is a very big field to write about because there are so many different religions and there are different off shoots of the different religions. The size of the topic area means that a writer needs to narrow the topic down by perspective and...

The Do’s And Don’ts For Writing Popular Fiction According to John Grisham

If you love reading legal thrillers, then you know that John Grisham is an authority on writing fiction. With several bestsellers under his belt, John Grisham has earned his place as one of the greatest in the genre and his opinion on writing fiction is...

Best Tips For Revising Your Novel

Congratulations, you have finished your first draft. Now what? Every author writes their story with a lot of excitement. This initial writing is the fun part. You are excited to see your plot take shape and your characters come to life. However, the next part is...

Get Noticed By Being An Expert Author

Have you noticed that some people are great storytellers? Are you? Some people are such great storytellers that others would say, “Have you ever thought about writing a book on that subject?” If you were asked this question, what would your response be? Some people are so...

What to Write about in Politics

Politics is a very large field to write about because there are multiple political parties that support different political policies. This means that a political writer should make sure to narrow their field of writing by both perspective and by focus. The political writer should...

Settings in Horror: The Graveyard

Whenever we think of death and darkness and decay, what better place is there than a graveyard? While the graveyard conveys a more depressing meaning in life, in literature, it’s just as terrifying as an abandoned asylum or a haunted mansion. From fledging vampires rising...

Dissonance in Horror: The Glasgow Smile

Every Batman fan knows who the Joker is, and even if you aren’t, you’ve probably heard his name somewhere before. His sociopathic tendencies, insane laugh, and disturbing smile have captivated audiences for many years. Still, however iconic he is, that smile is the one thing...

What to Write about in Business

Business is a very large field to write about because there are so many different types of business; the topic can easily include anything from starting your own business to growing an existing business. It is for this reason that it is so vital for...

Ignore Reviewers at Your Peril!

I have read and reviewed hundreds of books for Readers’ Favorite. These are my observations on basic mistakes made when writing fiction. Christian fiction does not mean “no graphic sex or obscene language otherwise I can write what I like”. Five-star books have a truly Christian...