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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...

Creative Mindfulness: Free Writing

Students who have studied the world of writing may have already been subjected to this technique, because it works on so many fantastic levels to boost creativity, clear the mind and unleash unwanted negativities when you’d like to be productive during your day. Best of...

Creative Mindfulness: Emotive Reading

We all have those days where everything gets on top of us, and a lot of the more calming exercises that we might try to employ just simply don’t work. So what happens when you have too much emotion bubbling up inside you? Here’s a...

Creative Mindfulness: Detailed Photography

In the world of smartphones and digital media, photography is everywhere, and pretty much everyone has some sort of camera at their disposal wherever they are during their day. This exercise looks at photography from a (literally) different angle, to turn those endless snaps into...

Using Setting to Illuminate and Enhance Your Characters

A location tells a lot about the person or people who inhabit it. An organized office, a scattered room, a neatly arranged work desk, a mansion in Malibu or a studio apartment in Queens tell us a person is organized, scattered, rich, or struggling. This...

Achieving Your 2022 Writing Goals

The new year is upon us and you've probably already started writing down your goals of things you want to accomplish in 2022. But there's a little nagging voice in the back of your mind, "How are you going to achieve these goals?" I'm going...

How To Choose the Right Setting for Your Romance Novel

You must have a romance narrative that takes place somewhere. Your hero and heroine are crucial, but they don’t exist in a void. The setting gives their story context. Readers need to know where things are happening, just as a matter of curiosity. But more importantly,...

4 Defining Qualities that Make Writers Soar

People often glorify the writing life. But few people realize that writing is challenging and often frustrating. And inspiration, the muse, or whatever you call it, is often overrated. Although reading a lot is touted as essential by most writers, what other characteristics do successful...

How To Make the Ending of Your Romance Narrative Remarkable

Your romance needs to meet readers' ultimate expectations, the hero and heroine living happily ever after. This is why they decided to read your romance, an opportunity to see love prevail against all odds. And you have to give it to them in a believable and...

How To Maximize Emotional Conflict in Romance Narratives

It is essential to have the right idea and craft characters with emotional baggage that afford compelling conflict. But more importantly, you need to use that conflict to propel your story. To move your narrative forward, you need to work with your story idea and...

Creative Mindfulness: Doodle Inspiration

This exercise takes a look at art-based methodology with a focused activity that brings art to the emotional mind too and can be very useful for unlocking creative thoughts and allowing your ideas a little freedom. The Theory Do you remember those times in school where you...