Did you know that November is National Novel Writing Month? It was started in 1999 by a freelance writer named Chris Baty. Starting on November 1st, you begin to write a 50,000 word novel. The novel must be completed 30 days later by 11:59pm on November 30th. The National Novel Writing Month website helps you track your progress throughout the 30 days. When time is up, if you have completed your 50,000 manuscript you can submit it through the website’s word-count validator. Once the validator confirms your word count, you will receive an official PDF Winner’s Certificate, and more importantly, the knowledge that you wrote a novel! With your newly penned manuscript, you can sell it as an ebook through a variety of ebook vendors, most notably through Amazon.com.

In the past, over 50 participants have had their novels released by traditional book publishers (that doesn’t count all the novels written during National Novel Writing Month that are self-published over the internet). New York Times bestsellers like Erin Morgenstern’s The Night Circus, Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants, and Amelia Atwater-Rhodes’ Persistence of Memory were all written as part of National Novel Writing Month! Last year, 341,375 individuals participated in National Novel Writing Month. Maybe this year will be your year to finally write that tale you’ve been dreaming up!

To learn more about National Novel Writing Month, visit their website at http://nanowrimo.org/.

Check back for our upcoming blog post entitled, “I wrote a book, how can I self-publish it?” to learn how to use Amazon.com to spread your story.