NaNoWriMo, a.k.a, national novel writing month, is a huge event in the writing community. Writers take on the challenge of writing a 50,000-word novel in the space of 30 days. Most writers use nanowrimo to finally put pen to paper and write the book they’ve had in their head for years, others use it to complete existing projects.
No matter why you’re partaking, it can be a really fun, challenging, and rewarding experience.
In 2021, we ran a campaign where authors could submit their unedited nanowrimo manuscripts and it was a huge success! It was so popular that we’re actually still processing some of the manuscripts that had been submitted (sorry peeps, we received so many on top of our regular submissions).
Through this campaign, we found one of my favourtie books, not just that we’ve published, but ever! Water’s Calling by Courtney Pollman-Turner immediately grabbed my attention with amazing writing, a well-thought-out plot, and amazing characters! I read the initial manuscript in one day and knew that this was a book I had to publish.
Initially, I accepted unedited nanowrimo manuscripts to help improve diversity in the industry. Some writers are intimidated to submit their manuscripts without it being edited but can’t afford the thousands of pounds an editor would cost. Allowing authors to submit their unedited manuscripts, it helped to ease some of their concerns. Although, Courtney did message us on Instagram about 3 times double checking that we actually were okay with an unedited manuscript.
To keep this option open to future authors, and to find our next Water’s Calling, we’re opening our submissions to nanowrimo manuscripts again!
Please keep in mind that there are a few conditions to this:
It must be a manuscript written in nanowrimo 2022. Obviously, we have no way to verify this, but we trust in the integrity of the community.
It cannot be a trunk manuscript. A trunk manuscript is one you write with the intention of it to never see the light of day.
We would prefer you to look over it yourself before submitting to us. We do mean when we say unedited, but you should still submit the manuscript in the best possible state that you can get it yourself.
Besides the 50,000 word count, the manuscript must still abide by our regular submission guidelines.
We’re so excited to read your submissions and can’t wait to see which authors are going to be joining us in 2022. You can read more information about Smashbear & Nanowrimo here.