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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...
Writing Great Reviews: Appraising Atmosphere
One of the greatest selling points of novels, particularly those in the genre fields as opposed to literary works, is the power of atmosphere, which here means the quality to take readers into another world in an immersive and engaging fashion. Perhaps more notable in...
In An Age of Uncertainty, Where Do I Begin?
Some of the greatest works in literature were written while the author was in isolation of some description or under quarantine. Take William Shakespeare, for example. His life and creativity were frequently hindered by outbreaks of the plague. It has been suggested that one of...
Writing Great Reviews: Children's and Teen Fiction
In this audience-specific article, we continue honing our skills for appraisal and recognition of good writing, but this time with a specific focus on the world of writing for under eighteens. This is an exercise in thinking as a reviewer first and a reader second,...
Understanding Random Assignment Part 2
Methods of Randomization Randomization is a vital part of any research study that utilizes human subjects for research participants; however, while the importance of randomization is universal there are different methods that can be utilized by researchers in order to ensure randomization in the selection of participants...
Understanding Random Assignment Part 1
In my article "The Need for Psychology Understanding,” I discussed how fiction writers need at least a basic understanding of psychology in order to write realistic content, dialogues, characters, and relationships. One such psychological concept is random assignment in research studies. Understanding random assignment and...
Different Types of Psychology Assessments Part 2
IPIP-NEO The IPIP-NEO is a personality test designed to assess the personality of the test taker in five main categories: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. The results from the test can be very useful if the test taker answered the questions honestly, as the results...
Writing Great Reviews: Reviewing Character Development
As we continue this series on how to appraise books and write more effective critical reviews, we will look at many core elements of book creation. This time, character development takes center stage, as we explore the techniques that authors employ to bring the people...
Different Types of Psychology Assessments Part 1
In my article "Understanding the Creation of Tests and Assessments,” I discussed how fiction writers need at least a basic understanding of psychological testing and assessment if they are writing about characters with mental illness. This is a particularly important area for many writers as...
Writing Great Reviews: Appraising Dialogue
In this series, I hope to teach you how to improve your critical eye and writing skills, so that you can write high quality, accurate reviews and editorials. This session concerns the art of dialogue, as in how authors convey the spoken word in their...
The Acronym Handicap
“What, or should I say, who is LOL?” I asked in all innocence. My friend laughed. “You’re kidding, right?” “No. I’m not.” In fact, I was perfectly serious. I was getting frustrated with all these emails with random insertions of LOL. I wanted to know what or...