It’s NaNoWriMo – Get Your Writing on!
November is National Novel Writing Month where writers from across the globe commit to writing a 50,000 word novel. It’s a pretty important time of the year for current and would be novelists.
If you are thinking about writing a book, it’s worth looking into. And I don’t think it should be limited to novels. There are so many smart people in business and technology who have a great story to tell, who should look at November as their time as well.
It’s something I’ve thought about for a few years, but never attempted. Too many reasons (or excuses – take your pick). Maybe this year could be different – we’ll see what happens on November 1.
I did want to tell you about something Blurb is doing to help writers meet their book goal.
Blurb is an independent platform where you can create, print and publishing your books. The company has supported the development of over 2 million books to date, so they are doing something right.
Blurb has partnered with NaNoWriMo by creating the Coffee and Quill Society, an online community that supports your efforts at success in November. This community, which is free to join, offers tips, support and “goodies” to help you focus on your 50,000 words, including help getting it self-published.
Blurb is also giving away prizes for those who are NaNoWriMo winners, including a free soft covered book and reflowable e-book of their completed novel. Plus there’s a chance to win editorial services.
Something else Blurb is announcing today is a new platform that will help independent authors complete their book. The new platform offers a team of collaborators (designers, editors, etc..). And they have two publishing industry veterans leading the process and vetting collaborators.
is an advisor to Safari Books Online, has his own community publishing platform (Cursor) and advising many start-ups in media. The other is . She is a digital media consultants and a start-up advisor. Both look like they have the skills to make Blurb’s new platform a success. I’d certainly like to have them advise me!
Dream Team collaborators are a highly curated group of professionals who have supplied references, links to publicly available examples of their book/magazine work (digital and/or print), plus a bio and photograph of themselves. Blurb users will be able to access the profiles for each of the experts and then fill out a project description requesting an introduction. Blurb will forward the requests to the respective Dream Team collaborators; at that point all communication will happen directly between collaborator and author/business. The parties will agree to their own terms and fee structures.”
Whether or not you choose to work through Blurb, or it’s society, if you have thought of writing that book on creating great experiences, or a tactical guide to lead generation, content marketing, creating an overall digital marketing strategy, consider kicking it off in November.
Write your goal in the comments. Maybe there’s a group of us who can support each other…
