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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 Create Secondary Characters That Enhance Your Romance Novel

Like every main character, the romance hero and heroine don’t exist in a void; they have family, friends, and colleagues. Secondary characters are equally important to your love story, and they help to drive the plot forward and highlight the traits of the main characters....

How to Excel at Persuasive Writing

Chances are very high that you encounter content in persuasive writing all through your day. For instance, you did choose your vacation destination because of that travel brochure you read, right? And not just that, your plane ticket too, right? Well, these are among the...

Four Hero Archetypes of Romance Novels

Every romance hero is not the same. Over time, romance readers have come to identify different types of heroes, each one having his own appeal. You can craft a hero from a combination of these archetypes, and you should use these archetypes as a starting...

What Do You Know About Descriptive Writing?

Have you ever read any piece of writing and you felt like you pretty much had a visual idea of what was being talked about, even without seeing the exact item being alluded to in the piece of writing? Or better still, you may have...

How to Craft a Hero That Sweeps the Heroine off Her Feet

From the first appearance of the hero in the heroine's life, something about him needs to affect her in a way that no other man ever has. Despite the hero's special qualities and the connection between the two main characters that need to be established...

How To Make Your Romance Heroine Realistic

To ensure your readers identify with the heroine, you need to make her feel real. This doesn’t necessarily require her to be someone your reader could be or knows. What matters is that you give her reference points that your readers can appreciate, slipping smoothly...

How To Access Resources for Intending Romance Writers 

In writing romance novels, you may need to find the right community. Many sources exist to give you a chance to interact with aspiring and published writers and find guidance and instruction for your craft. This is not a complete list, but it includes some...

All You Need to Know About Narrative Writing

The fiction genre is very broad and offers a wide variety of exciting opportunities for authors as far as writing is concerned. It goes without saying, it is the most competitive genre of the two genres of writing. There are many tools, devices, and rules...

Types of Writing Styles

As a writer, having and delivering your content in the right context matters more than even how skilled you are at writing. What good will it do your audience if your writing abilities are magnificent but they can’t place the context of your writing? There...

The Types of Expository Writing and How to Make Them Interesting

Expository writing is a very important writing tool, especially for authors whose specialization is in the nonfiction genre. It is the only tool in writing that allows readers to learn something new or maybe understand better what they already know. In fact, when using the...