I keep seeing folks asking about getting their NaNoWriMo Novels published and asking if at the end of the contest, will NaNoWriMo publish it for them, so I wrote up this:
Nope, NaNo is just a group of people who get together to write, not a publishing house. From what I hear around the forums a lot of folks self-publish via LuLu.com – but only after lots of edits and rewrites and usually a year later.
If you are looking to get published, you need to first figure out which publishing house you want to publish with BEFORE you start plotting your novel, and send for a copy of their submissions guidelines if they are not on their website (most publishers have them listed on their website now). The guidelines will tell you novel length, what they are looking for ect. It will also tell you specifically WHICH editor to send it to, so you don’t just go haphazardly sending it at random to anyone at the publishing house editor or otherwise! For example I’m writing 2 NaNoNovels this year, one of which I plan to later submit to Harlequin. So I went the Harlequin site and their guidelines said this:
[quote=http://www.eharlequin.com/articlepage.html?articleId=542&chapter=0]
Length: 55,000—60,000 words
Senior Editor: Kathleen Scheibling
Associate Editor: Johanna Raisanen
Editorial Assistant: Laura Barth
Editorial Office: Toronto, Canada
American Romance features heartwarming romances with strong family elements. These are stories about the pursuit of love, marriage and family in America today.
A sense of family and community is essential. Secondary characters—such as parents, grandparents, siblings or other relatives, good friends or neighbors—support the hero and heroine in their quest for love, but never overshadow the primary romance. Books must have a distinctly American setting. American Romance favors western settings—from the wide-open ranches of Texas and Wyoming to the small towns of Montana and Oklahoma, to big cities such as Dallas and Phoenix—but our books can be set anywhere in the USA.
Most important is a focus on romance and a clear sense of romantic conflict between the hero and the heroine. There must be realistic obstacles that keep them apart, and overcoming these obstacles is what leads them to a happily ever after.
American Romances can vary in tone, from sweet to humorous to intensely emotional. But there must always be enough drama and tension to keep the pages turning—after all, what could be more dramatic than family?[/quote]
So that means, I have to plan my Romance NaNoNovel to be 55-60k and I have to plan the story plot to match their specifications for this particular line. (Each of their lines has different guidelines).
Than, once you know what your chosen publisher is looking for, you can plan your novel to match. This applies for any writer looking to publish whether you are writing for NaNoWriMo or not. For regular writers (and some NaNoWriters) the writing time line goes something like this:
-One Month To Plan
-One to Two Months To Write
-Two to Four Months to Revise, Edit, & ReWrite
-One Month to Write the Final Draft (usually the 4th or 5th draft by this point)
-One Month to Write Synopsis, Cover Letters, Queries, & Sample Chapters (usually the first 3 chapters)
-Mail Out MSS
-Start Next Book While Waiting 3 to 6 Months For Publisher Reply
Some writers shorten this or overlap it so that they can write 3 or 4 books a year, but most focus on just doing one or two books a year.
So, long story short: DON’T plan on publishing your NaNoNovel come December 1st. What you’ll have at that point is only a first draft, and every book goes through 3, 4, or more drafts before it gets polished up enough to be publishable. If you are coming into NaNoWriMo hoping to publish – have a plan before you start, and plan to spend about 6 months of hard work on your draft AFTER NaNoWriMo ends, BEFORE it’ll be ready to publish. Publishing your NaNoNovel can be done, several WriMoers have done it – but it didn’t happen over night – it took a lot of hard work long after the contest ended.
Hope that helps you out. Good luck with your writing goals!
Find Out More About My 2009 NaNoWriMo Project
What’s your take on this? I’d love to hear what you have to say about this post. Leave a comment and share your views!
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How I Reached 50,000 in 30 Days and You Can Too!
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