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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...
10 Recommended Fiction About Pandemics (Part 2 of 2)
5) The Stand by Stephen King (1978) From the beloved contemporary horror master, Stephen King, this novel is a post-apocalyptic dark fantasy that centers on a pandemic of a weaponized strain of influenza, resistant to vaccines and antibodies, that wipes out most of the world’s population....
10 Recommended Fiction About Pandemics (Part 1 of 2)
The coronavirus has been spreading around the globe in such pandemic proportions that there has been a reported increase in the number of people drafting their wills. As we all stay home and put ourselves in quarantine, many of us see what’s happening in the...
Dialogue Tags
She said. He said. They said. Who said? There’s nothing more frustrating to a reader than pages of dialogue, presumably between two people, with no identifying tags/labels to explain who’s saying what and to whom. Some of the biggest names in the writing industry do this....
Historical Inspiration: The Victorian Era
Queen Victoria’s reign was known for its social progressiveness. There was a push to integrate both religion and morality, and as a result, politico-social reform came to focus. And while much of society was changing during the time, much of this change has been shown...
Historical Inspirations: The Transcendentalist Movement
Of course, there are times when science and religion work together. There are times when our experiments reaffirm our beliefs, whatever they may be. They could tell us of the beauty of this world, the deities that may or may not be living in it,...
The Origin of Species: Charles Darwin
The theory of evolution describes how animal characteristics could change from one environment to another. It talks about how long animals would have to be in a certain environment to attain these characteristics, and how these changes could either help or hinder a population’s survival....
Fairytale Wonders: Cinderella
A beloved plot in fiction is the classic rags-to-riches tale. It’s a story people want to read whenever they’re down on their luck or hope to find their one true love from far, far away. It’s a story we’ve seen in books, TV shows, movies,...
Romantic Inspirations: Lewis Carroll
In a particularly famous book, called Alice in Wonderland, little Alice goes off on a childlike adventure to a place called Wonderland. There, she meets all sorts of weird creatures, such as a talking caterpillar, talking flowers, talking animals, and a Queen that wants to...
Historical Inspirations: Concrete Ships
Just over one hundred years ago, the United States entered World War I. Around the same time, President Woodrow Wilson approved the Emergency Fleet plan – a plan that commissioned twenty-four concrete ships to be used for the war. Wait. Concrete ships? Doesn’t concrete, you know…sink? It...
Psychopathy, Sociopathy, Antisocial Personality Disorder, and Writing
Twisted serial killers, assassins, mobsters, and Ponzi-schemers. All are fascinating in their own way, but crime alone doesn’t link all of them. Their minds do too. The media sensationalizes these people and others because of their deeds and the idea that they are psychopaths. Psychopaths...