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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...

Deadlines: The King of the Writing Business

When I worked in journalism there was one principle that was so important that we never talked about it. Does that sound like an oxymoron? If it was important wouldn’t we have talked about it all the time? No, because it was just assumed—always—that news...

Steps to Writing a Basic Article

There are many ways to write articles but for the purpose of this exercise, we will use a generic system for writing basic articles. What is an article? An article is a written document covering any subject that would be of interest to a large audience...

The Necessity of Figurative Language

A common problem I’ve noticed in the modern writing world is the idea of figurative language. Figurative language is essentially writing in a such a way where the words mean something more than their actual meanings. It’s an art form; it requires subtlety, craftsmanship, and...

The Musicianship of Poetry

Have you ever watched a singing show like The Voice or American Idol? If you’re an American, I’m sure you have, at least accidentally. Every season seems to have at least one (sometimes several) artist that puts runs at the end of every line, or...

Modernizing Sonnets

This is the first in a series of articles I’ll be writing on traditional poetic forms, and how they might be modernized. When you think of an ode, what form do you picture? Is it the Horatian style of Pope’s Ode on Solitude, the swinging...

The Importance of Asking “How”

Most writers are familiar with the six journalistic questions. The first four are who, what, when, and where. Every writer, whether they write fiction or nonfiction, needs to answer these questions in every story or book. As a practical matter, writers almost always do answer them...

Rhyme and Meter

Today, I’m writing about two devices many poets struggle with; rhyme and meter. Both concepts have for the most part been abandoned in modern poetry, but both can still be productive and effective when used correctly. Poetry is all about voice and word choice; rhyme...

How to be a Superb Commenter at your Writing Group

Writers’ groups are meetings where authors gather to read their work and get critiques from others. They often meet weekly or every other week. Usually, writers of just about any genre and skill level are welcome. Whether you are reading or commenting you can learn...

Getting the Most Out of a Writing Group

Writers’ groups are meetings where authors gather to read their work and get critiques from others. They typically meet weekly or every other week. Usually writers of just about any genre and skill level are welcome. Whether you are reading or commenting you can learn...

Using Foreshadowing and Tie Backs

Foreshadowing and Tie Backs are two useful literary tools. Foreshadowing means a writer provides a hint about an upcoming event. Here’s an example from my first novel, with a news reporter speaking to my protagonist. The foreshadowing passage goes like this      “I ran across Bradshaw...