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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...

How to Find a Topic to Write About to Get Views

One of the biggest problems writers, bloggers, and freelancers struggle with is finding the right topic to write about in order to get their writing seen by as many visitors as possible. The first thing most writers try is performing Google searches on phrases such as:...

HubPages for New Writers

HubPages is a site that allows writers of all skill levels to publish their own original content online and be paid for it. HubPages operates on a revenue-sharing system that pays writers based on the number of views their content receives. New Writers While HubPages welcomes all...

Freelance Writing - The Dos And Don'ts

There are too many freelancers and not nearly enough freelance jobs. So how do you make sure that you stand out from the crowd and get the good jobs? Here are some tips to help you get started or up your game. DO Have An Impressive Profile:...

How To Handle Rejection

No one looks forward to having their work rejected, but as a writer, you should accept that rejection is part of the process. There are not many writers who will tell you that their work was accepted on the first submission. However, even though it...

What To Consider When Choosing Your Genre, Topic and Title

The very first thing you should think about when you decide to write is what exactly you want to write about. For some people, choosing a genre, topic and title is an easy task, but not so much for others. It is imperative that you...

Developing Your Personal Writing Style

Simply put, writing style refers to how you use language. Your specific style is developed from how you use certain features of a particular language to bring out the meaning. As a writer, there is something distinctive about the way you use these features that...

10 Ways To Polish Your Writing

10 Ways To Polish Your Writing 1. Avoid Long-Winded Statements: Long-winded explanations and unnecessary details are boring, exhausting, and take the pleasure out of the reading experience. If the additional explanation adds very little or nothing to the content, leave it out. Read an example of...

Three Mistakes to Avoid on Your Fiction First Draft

Whether you’re looking to entice your readers with your wonderful, well-imagined, and exciting characters or to grab the attention of a literary agent with your powerful storytelling skills, there are some elements of writing that writers tend to ignore when they write the first draft and...

Authors Who Inspire

There was a time when readers avoided memoirs. There was no spark to the story; it was dry and uninspiring; it just told a story about a person’s life. With the increasing demands to entertain readers, to capture their attention from the first line, the...

Writing About Social Issues For the Young Adult Market

There are a lot of pressing issues facing teens today. One of the biggest concerns is teen suicide. What drives a teenager to want to end his/her life? It can’t be stress and peer pressure alone. Two serious causes of teen suicide have been identified:...