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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 Write the Perfect Short Story

How do you write the perfect short story? Firstly, you need to concentrate on your protagonist. What is their goal? The story will be about the protagonist trying to achieve their goal. Of course there must be conflict and then there will be resolution, but before...

Considerations Any Author Must Make Before Writing a Novel

It is not easy to write a book. Some of the best authors have at some point spent years writing a single book. Writing a book is a daunting task, especially for new writers. Writing your first and second books is guaranteed to pose a...

How to Write the Perfect Horror Story

What exactly is the perfect horror story? There are so many different genres of horror story out there today that it is becoming increasingly difficult to define the genre. However, there are a few basics that unite all and will help you in perfecting that...

How to Write Crime Fiction

You really want to write crime fiction but how do you go about this? Here are a few tips to get you started. Start with character as the foundations of the crime novel are built upon strong and memorable characters. Plots in crime novels are often...

Do Writing Workshops Help to Improve Your Writing?

Writing workshops seem to be extremely popular with both the established and new writer, however, do they help to improve your writing and help to perfect those skills that you already have? You certainly have nothing to lose by attending a writing workshop. By definition they...

Ticking Clock Vs. Option Exhaustion: Best Way To Build Up Your Climax

These are two popular methods to create tension in the plot and drive it towards the climax. An author is free to use either one or both methods as he wishes, depending on the type of story. The Ticking Clock This is a common feature in action-based...

How To Avoid The Sagging Middle Syndrome In Your Novel

This is one of the most common problems that novelists have to deal with when writing. Luckily for them, this problem can be remedied or avoided altogether. The ‘sagging middle’ syndrome is when the body of the novel fails to hold readers’ interest as it...

How To Avoid Passive Voice

Passive voice is to be avoided unless an author has a very specific effect in mind. Active voice should be used as much as possible. Distinguishing the two voices can sometimes be confusing, hence a little explanation is in order. By using active voice, a writer...

Specificity: The Key to Descriptive Writing

Painting a picture in readers’ minds is one of the most powerful techniques that an author can use to tell his story. Any author who masters this technique can have readers wrapped around his little finger as he takes them on an extraordinary journey that...

Understanding External Conflict And Internal Conflict

In popular fiction, external conflict used to be the norm. However, as literary works matured, heroes began to change, grow, and question themselves more. Traditionally, heroes of fiction knew they were better people than the villains, hence they had no reason to question themselves. Tension...