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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 a Euphemism?

What is a euphemism? We grow up learning nothing but good morals and generally being virtuous. This process of learning slowly breeds and raises a strong urge in us to uphold decency in both our actions and conversations. This is probably why we find it hard...

All About Repetition

The definition of repetition Repetition is a literary device that entails the deliberate usage of a word or phrase more than once in a sentence or group of words. Repetition is often done to produce the desired effect which can be musicality, clarity, emphasis, or memorability. Repetition...

How To Use Antithesis as a Literary Device in Your Writing

Antithesis emphasizes the meaning and importance of an idea by pointing readers to its exact opposite, helping them better understand and appreciate the idea. And by using parallelism, antithesis provides your prose with rhythmic and lyrical qualities that make an expression memorable. In this article,...

Exploring the Use of Satire in Literature

Satire is a literary device that adroitly ridicules folly or vice to expose or correct it. It focuses on human imperfection as it manifests in people’s behavior, ideas, and societal institutions or other creations. Satire uses tones of entertainment, mockery, disdain, or exasperation toward a flawed subject,...

What's an Oxymoron?

What is an Oxymoron? What comes to your mind when such a question is shot at you? Can you comfortably answer it? An oxymoron is quite a common literary device you’ll come across in literary works. The word oxymoron is derived from the Greek words oksús...

All You Need to Know About Double Entendres

You can use double entendres as literary devices to make a narrative humorous and delightful. They can form riddles or infuse humor into your story. People also use double entendres as a figure of speech to make innuendos. And in this article, we explore the...

Exploring Similes: Meaning, Classic Examples and Helpful Tips

Similes can make your writing more fun and impressive while maintaining clarity. It makes your descriptions more concrete and evocative, allowing a mental picture to form in your readers' minds. It can take something so abstract like sadness and make it concrete: His heart was...

Let's Talk about Symbolism

What comes into your head when you see a rose? Is it romance? Love? Well, I have no doubt that either of those was your first guess. Why not think about the rose as a mere plant? Why not even think about a garden instead?...

All About Allegory

Apart from getting a reader hooked on your work, one of the things you should consider during writing your work is the aspect of educating your readers. This is commonly known as the moral lesson of your work or story. Most writers find coming up...

Various Types of Puns (With Examples)

A pun is a play on words, which usually exploits words with multiple meanings or a homonym substitute that changes a sentence's connotation for humorous or rhetorical effect. Though they have made prominent appearances in jokes and advertisements, you can also use puns in storytelling....