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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...

Understanding how Power Changes a Leader

One psychological concept that writers would benefit from understanding is how power can change the psychological functioning of a leader. Writers can benefit in that such an understanding will help them to explain how and why their character has changed since acquiring power. The fact that power...

Strengthen Your Stories with Concrete Details

The axiom “show, don’t tell” is so well known it’s practically a writing cliché. Indeed, it might be the first lesson many new writers learn. But how exactly can writers show instead of tell? One way is through the inclusion of details. A writer in one...

Watch Out for Ambiguous Antecedents

A cardinal rule of writing is that our meaning must be clear. Robert Louis Stevenson, who wrote “Treasure Island” and “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” is widely credited with this axiom: “Don’t write merely to be understood. Write so you can’t...

Money, Deadlines, and Quality—How They Interact and Why That’s Important

There’s an axiom that goes like this: “There are three ways that any task can get done. It can be done quickly, it can be done well, or it can be done inexpensively.” The adage goes on to say, “And it’s possible to have any...

Follow Formatting Rules, but Allow for Exceptions

Consistent formatting of our stories and books is important. That’s why we have rules for punctuation, abbreviations, number use, etc. It’s best to follow those rules; it would be chaos if everyone formatted their work as they chose. But . . . writing is an...

Respect these Ethical Concepts as You Conduct Interviews

Everyone knows that we must write ethically. For example, we must not invade a person's privacy, violate cultural standards, or compromise public safety. And above all, we must write the truth. But did you know there are ethical decisions to be made before you write your...

Are You Writing the Style of Your Favorite Author?

It’s been said many times that imitation is the highest form of flattery. All artists, visual, theatre, music, and even literary, have to start somewhere, and studying and copying the art of their favorite masters is a good place to start. But, copying a writing...

Why and How to Avoid Redundancy

This article encourages writers to eliminate redundant, unneeded, and surplus words. How’s that again? Obviously, I need to kill unneeded and surplus because they’re redundant. But alas, many writers waste space and their readers’ time with unnecessary words. Here are six reasons why writers let redundancy slip in,...

Write Like You’re Writing for Radio

I started my journalism career as a newspaper reporter. Later I became an editor, then a radio news announcer, and finally worked in TV news. My point in giving you my background is to say that I learned how dissimilar writing for all three mediums...

Are You a Pantser or a Plotter?

As an author, are you a pantser or a plotter? I define the two as follows: Pantser: A writer who gets a story idea, sits down, and starts writing without an outline, character, or plot details. S/he develops the story as s/he writes it, often surprising...