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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 Psychology of Writing (Part 2 of 2)

Years of study have been devoted to understanding the underlying motives of why writers write, and the answers are often rooted deep in the writer’s psyche and have been subjected to various interpretations. Famous authors, for their part, do not give too much emphasis to...

The Psychology of Writing (Part 1 of 2)

Rejection and criticism will always be a part of the writer’s experience. As writers, we subject ourselves to the approval of others. While most of us have managed to accept these two factors as part of the vocation, some writers take it too personally to...

Writing About Faith and Religion (Part 2 of 2)

2) Double-check your references This will save you time during your editing and proofreading process. If you do not know the difference between a priest’s stole and his chasuble, re-check your reference to prevent any hassle that may arise. You don’t need to be technical, but being specific...

Writing About Faith and Religion (Part 1 of 2)

Writing religious stories or articles can be intimidating for some writers out of fear that they might offend and be labeled as a blasphemer. Remember the time when Salman Rushdie wrote the novel The Satanic Verses? The Shah of Iran at that time found the...

An Invitation to Write a Webnovel (Part 2 of 2)

But lo and behold, the article I was reading was posted in December 2018. Many changes have taken place since then. But perusing through the Webnovel site, how authors can earn is through their “Contracted Works Guaranteed System,” where chosen authors sign a royalty contract with...

An Invitation to Write a Webnovel (Part 1 of 2)

Opening my LinkedIn account, I was surprised to receive an invitation from a Chinese-based publishing platform called Webnovel owned by a publishing firm called Qidian Yuewen. “You are finally here!” it says in the first paragraph. “You are who we want, passionate about writing and...

As the World Closes In With Covid-19 Isolation, Reach Out With Your Writing

In the beginning was the Word. And so it shall be throughout time and even in the end. The written word is eternal. At least we presume that it is. Perhaps we presume too much. With this high-tech generation where youngsters rebel at the simple...

Learning From The Masters Of Writing (Part 1 of 4)

An essential part of being a writer is learning what has come before you; learning from the classics so you can become (as T. S. Eliot said in “Tradition and The Individual Talent”) a part of that tradition. Though finding a direction in that massive...

Writing About Your Pandemic Experience (Part 2 of 2)

Among all the reasons to write about the pandemic, history is perhaps the best one to motivate us to pick up our pen and share our ideas and became a part of the global sentiment. We have become accustomed to the fast-paced tempo of our...

Writing About Your Pandemic Experience (Part 1 of 2)

We’re all staying home finding ways to make better use of our time. It’s not often that we get to have so much time on our hands as we are forced into isolation to protect ourselves in these uncertain times. What’s comforting to know is...