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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...

The Importance of Story Outline in Writing Romance Novels

A story outline is how you organize the events of the story before you begin to write it. An outline is a road map that brings a narrative to the desired destination of a polished work of fiction. Storytelling is like a journey through a route...

How To Make Your Setting a Supportive Secondary Character

In most romances, the setting is not a major highlight, as it should be. It's meant to be the unsung hero of your narrative, providing context and helping your plot and characters progress. But sometimes, you may have a story where the setting plays a...

Let's Talk About Irony

What is irony? Most writers will agree that irony is one of the most fun, entertaining, and interesting literary devices to use in writing, yet quite hard to grasp. Some writers may also find it hard to tell the difference between sarcasm and irony. I would...

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...