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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...

5 Editing Tips For Self-Editing Your Work

Learning to edit your work is essential before you move to publication. While some projects require professional editing, there’s so much you can achieve through self-editing. It helps you get familiar with good writing habits and recognize your unique voice, making your future project much...

3 Writing Techniques To Have In Your Creative Arsenal

You may need some new writing techniques to improve your writing proficiency or help you push through a creative fog. And here are 3 approaches that you can apply to any piece of narrative fiction to make them more captivating. You can consider them and...

Nonfiction Writers—Who Are Your Sources?

A friend recently asked me this question: “Where do journalists get their sources?” It’s a good question. If you’re writing nonfiction, where will you get your sources? Your choice of sources is critical because it affects the accuracy, reliability, and completeness of your story. This article explains...

5 Crucial Tips for Writing Incredible Science Fiction 

Writing science fiction can be a great experience with the world-building and creative freedom it affords. However, creating something unique yet relatable can be a challenging writing process. But here are some great tips that can help you craft that fascinating adventure in an advanced...

Features of Literary Fiction

Literary fiction is a genre that focuses on style, character, and theme over plot. Though it's a hard category to describe, you can spot literary fiction with certainty once you know what to look for. This category is prestigious and often comes with an initial...

5 Things That Can Lead to Amazing Story Ideas

Not every writer can spontaneously come up with story ideas. For many, the process can be tedious and frustrating, requiring an unprecedented moment of epiphany. To make this process less laborious, consider writing about anything and building on that idea as you proceed. In this...

What to Consider in Writing a Self-Help Book

Life comes with many challenges, some of which you have been through and learned how to overcome. Now, you want to share these secrets with others going through similar circumstances. In this article, we discuss three questions you need to consider in putting your ideas...

The Challenges of Writing Young Adult Fiction

Young Adult fiction (YA) is targeted at readers between 13 and 17 years of age because it tackles subjects that relate to their experience in some way. But, while it’s written with teens as the intended audience, many adults enjoy reading it too. YA is...

Are You a Rhyme Criminal?

You have a great idea for a children's picture book, and you've decided to tell it in verse. Children love poetry because they can anticipate the rhyming words and say them along with the adults reading the book to them. You already know that picture...

Inspiring Activities

I don’t care what people say, writer’s block is real. We all get burned out even on things we love, and a break is necessary to replenish the creative well. Sometimes you can tell when that dreaded case of writer’s block will happen. For example,...