Welcome to another installment of "I Sold My NaNoWriMo Novel!" For today's Q&A I talked with Rachael Herron, who's debut NaNo novel How to Knit a Love Song was published by HarperCollins this month. Yay, Rachael!

Firstly (and I'm so sorry to make you do this), could you give us a one-sentence overview of the plot for How To Knit A Love Song?

Abigail intends to turn an unexpected windfall into a knitting shop and spend her days spinning and purling, but she's not welcomed by Cade, the sheep rancher who views the city girl as an unwanted interloper—and when the past Abigail thought she left behind comes calling, she'll have to trust her handsome adversary with much more than just her heart.

You wrote the first draft of How To Knit A Love Song for NaNoWriMo 2006. How is the novel that HarperCollins is publishing this week different than the version you first penned four and a half years ago? How many months (or years) of revision did it take you to feel truly finished with your book?

It's astonishingly similar, in many respects. The first half, in particular, has been revised of course, but retains its original idea and shape. It kind of blows my mind that when I sat down that November first, thinking that I would just have fun with this crazy idea of a knitter and a sheep rancher, wrangling over land and love, that those ideas would come to be a real book, on real bookshelves. Of course, it took a long time for it all to come together. I put it away at the end of November at just over 50,000 words. The next spring I pulled it out and added about 15,000 words to finish it. I started sending it out to agents, and in fall, my new agent and I worked together to add the suspense subplot which now weaves through the book, which added another 20,000 words. So it was more than a year after NaNoWriMo before the book was complete enough to sell (and then there were editor revisions which followed, but those were thrilling, I thought!).

How much planning did you do before sitting down to start writing on November 1?

I started by jotting down about thirty plot points on note cards. I thought that would get me through me thirty days, which was completely dead wrong, since by day seven, the story had spiraled out of my control and the cards were no longer good for anything but setting my coffee cup on. I learned that November that I'm a pantser, not a plotter (meaning I really write by the seat of my pants, rather than plotting things out meticulously, which can be both a blessing and a curse). But the crazy things that happened because I had no idea what to do next—like when Abigail spontaneously buys a couple of alpacas and doesn't know what do with them—are some of my favorite parts, and that's one of the best things about NaNoWriMo: what it forces your brain to come up with out of sheer unadulterated panic.

You write in the Romance genre, which is a very popular one for NaNoWriMo authors. Why do you think Romance and NaNoWriMo go so well together?

Romance authors as a group tend to be very driven and highly intelligent, and because of that, I think they've recognized that NaNoWriMo is a great way to harness energy. As Sarah Wendell said about romance, "It’s a 50-plus-year-old industry comprised mostly of women writers operating their own businesses and producing a genre about women’s self-actualization, pursuit of autonomy, and acquisition of sexual agency for an audience made mostly of women, who buy over $1.4 billion dollars worth of books a year." That's more than the mystery and science fiction genres put together! And romance writers are always looking for ways to write better, faster, and more productively -- NaNoWriMo fits that bill. It's a fun, difficult challenge that forces writers to rise to their best.

Do you have any tips specifically for Romance writers looking to find an agent and publisher for their NaNoWriMo manuscripts?

Tip #1: The best tip ever for romance writers: Get thee to your nearest Romance Writers of America meeting! Stat! There isn't a single better or more helpful professional writing group out there, in my opinion, and the writers involved will help you in every step of your writing process. Tip #2: Agentquery.com -- it's a great, free site that sorts agents by the genre they're looking for. It also tells you how to write a query, and exactly what each agent is looking for (partial manuscript, synopsis only, etc.). Tip #3: Don't believe anyone if they tell you you have to know someone in the industry. Sure, it's helpful, but people still make it through the slushpile. I did.

What advice do you have for folks who are feeling a little overwhelmed by the rigors of novel editing?

Oh, no, I'm not sure! I'm always editing! Editing is overwhelming, yes, but I find first drafts even more difficult and painful -- the last few Novembers found me scratching at posts and chewing glass because it's so hard to see such horrible words landing SPLAT on the page like that. Editing, oh, what a wonderful thing. Just think about how nice it is, to move big chunks of writing around, to change small words, to make everything pretty. My biggest tip is to have your manuscript in one file, and have another file titled CUTS. Feel free to move whole passages into your CUTS file, with the entire intention of someday fishing them out again and reusing them (you most likely never will but pretend that's not true -- it's a lovely lie). It's completely liberating, since I can't make myself delete anything.

If NaNoWriMo were a knitting project, what would it be? Trellis stitch shawl collar cardigan? Battle leggings? Something else?

Really, Chris? Trellis stitch shawl collar cardigan? How did you come up with that? I actually had to look that up, because I knew I'd never seen one, and it's HARD to stump me with the knitting. Here it is: http://www.knittingonthenet.com/patterns/sweshawlcard.htm and I am now filled with an unholy desire to make it, and to update it to make it fashionable. Now, THAT would be a great NaNoWriMo project. Good job! I am impressed.

You totally didn't answer the question.

Busted. First, we're going to assume that you already know about NaKniSweMo. (You did, right? Tell me you did. It's huge. Many people take part in both in November. I've done it myself.) But since I routinely knit sweaters in less than a month, that's not challenging, therefore I will not pretend that it's MY NaNoWriMo knitting project. If NaNoWriMo were a knitting project for ME, it would have to be something I'd always dreamed of knitting but never really thought I could (they way people feel about novel writing).

Okay. Truth now. It would be Alice Starmore's Golden Gate from her book Pacific Coast Highway, which is completely out of print, and when it can be found, starts at about $250. It's a densely cabled sweater, and the motion of the cables echo the sway of the iconic bridge, and when knitted in dark red wool, you can almost smell the salt water and hear the fog horns. It's my Someday Sweater. One day, I will own that pattern, and I will make that sweater.

Oh, yes. I will.

You had to make me to go there. (Heavy breathing.)

Thanks, Chris!

Rachael Herron received her MFA in writing from Mills College, and has been knitting since she was five years old. It's more than a hobby; it's a way of life. Rachael blogs at Yarn-a-Go-Go and lives with her better half in Oakland, California, where they have four cats, three dogs, three spinning wheels, and more instruments than they can count. She is a proud member of the San Francisco Area Romance Writers of America and she is struggling to learn the ukulele.

One of the great things about the NaNoWriMo off-season is that we start getting emails from participants letting us know they've found publishers for their NaNo novels. We're trucking towards 50 novels sold to traditional print publishers, hundreds more in ebook form (which we're desperately overdue on coming up with a listing for), and tens of thousands have appeared as self-published works.

When we get emails about NaNoWriMo novels finding a publisher, we raise a mug of coffee to the author's follow-through, and then add their book to the published-NaNo-novels FAQ. Which is all well and good. But I thought it might be more interesting to celebrate the author's achievement by forcing them do an onerous Q&A for the NaNo blog.

And here's our first victim! Donna Gephart, who just wrote in to say that her 2009 NaNo novel was purchased by Delacorte Press/Random House.

Yes, I said 2009 NaNoWriMo novel.

How did she do it? Read on!

Donna, this past November was your first NaNoWriMo. What made you decide to take part?
Sheer terror! A new novel was long overdue to my agent and editor, but I couldn't seem to come up with anything worth pursuing. NaNoWriMo seemed the perfect opportunity to plunge forward and knock out a new novel.

You've published several novels previously. During the planning stage, how did you approach your NaNoWriMo first draft differently than previous first drafts you've written?
I didn't discover NaNoWriMo until two days before the start, so I had little time to prepare. Basically, the day before, at the 11th hour, I scrawled a title, OLIVIA BEAN, TRIVIA QUEEN, in a notebook. The next day, I blindly started writing about a girl who loved trivia and the game show, Jeopardy! With other novels, I'd spend several days writing notes about characters, plot ideas, etc. With NaNoWriMo, I wrote some of the novel each day, then scratched out notes on character, plot, etc. at breakneck speed. In fact, my handy notebook sat beside me daily as I wrote in case I came up with a relevant idea, fact or question.

You kept friends and family updated on your word count (and life) through your blog in November. What are the advantages and disadvantages of a NaNoWriMo participant blogging their noveling progress?
My daily blogging during NaNoWriMo was personal insurance that I'd stay accountable. Nothing like public humiliation to keep one on track with one's writing goals! It also made me feel more connected during the solitary process of writing a novel.

I've always encouraged participants to avoid editing in November. On your blog, you took issue with this idea, and said that revising was an important part of your book-building process. You managed to hit 50K with time to spare, so you clearly were able to fine-tune without hurting your output. Do you have tips on how Wrimos can also build productive bouts of revision into November's creative process?
Sometimes while writing, I come to a mental roadblock. I can't move the book forward. When this happens, I revisit what came before to make sure I haven't veered off track. Sometimes I need to change direction. I can't imagine plunging forward along a path that might be entirely wrong for a character. So, those brief times of going back and revising assure that I stay on the right track. I do this backtracking often at the beginning of writing a novel because it helps me get a strong foothold. Near the end of writing a novel, it's like a rock rolling downhill -- the writing becomes fast and furious, picking up speed.

If you choose to revise as you go along, it's important not to linger on those revisions; don't use them as an excuse to keep from moving forward at a brisk pace. There will be plenty of time for revisions when the book is done and you can look at it as a whole.

What surprised you most about NaNoWriMo and your month-long novel?
It surprised me that we writers are capable of far more than we give ourselves credit for. Writing a novel in a month despite obligations and a busy life is quite an accomplishment . . . and commitment.

If you could go back in time to November 1 and give yourself one bit of NaNoWriMo advice, what would it be?
Go for it with gusto! Unless you try, you'll never know what can happen. Sara Gruen's wonderful NaNoWriMo novel, Water for Elephants, kept me motivated to move forward on those days I absolutely didn't feel like writing. I hope my story will help spur you on to finish your novel!

What tips do you have for other NaNoWriMo participants who penned middle-grade novels and are now looking for agents or publishers?
Long version: Make sure you don't send your first draft to an agent or editor. The competition is too intense. Revise, revise, revise until your manuscript is the best you can make it. A good critique group can help you work wonders with your manuscript as well. It took me years and many rejections from both agents and editors before I honed the skills necessary to write and revise a novel to the point at which it was publishable.

Short version: Work hard. Don't quit. Good luck!!!

Donna Gephart wrote Olivia Bean, Trivia Queen in 29 days during NaNoWriMo 2009 and sold it to Delacorte Press/Random House fewer than three months later. She blogged about her experience with NaNoWriMo here and the sale of her book here. Donna is also the author of How to Survive Middle School and As If Being 12 3/4 Isn't Bad Enough, My Mother Is Running for President! (winner of the Sid Fleischman Humor Award). Learn more at www.donnagephart.com.

I met ebook evangelist Mark Coker last year at the Tools of Change publishing conference. Very nice guy. Clearly loved ebooks. And when I caught a glimpse of my first ebook display rack (eeeee!) at a local bookstore this week, it made me think of Mark. So I tracked him down and asked him if he'd write something about why ebook publishing might be a good fit for NaNoWriMo participants. Here's what Mark wrote (did I mention he clearly loves ebooks?):

"Ebooks represent the fastest, easiest and cheapest way to get your book in the hands of readers.

Ebooks are the fastest growing segment of the book publishing industry. Whereas the overall book industry has been weak in recent years, ebook sales grew 176 percent in 2009, according to the IDPF

Although ebooks only account for about five percent of the overall book market here in the U.S., some independent authors already sell more ebooks than print books. In January, Amazon announced that for books available in both print and Kindle versions, six out of every ten books they sell are ebooks.

Unlike with print books, an ebook author doesn’t need a publisher to gain mainstream distribution into the largest online ebook stores. Amazon’s Digital Text Platform allows authors to publish their books directly into the Kindle store, and my own Smashwords recently announced ebook distribution agreements with all the major online retailers, including Barnes & Noble, Amazon and Sony. We also have distribution into the online catalogs of mobile platforms such as Stanza on the iPhone, Aldiko on Android phones, and Kobo across all mobile phone devices.

Millions of book buyers now prefer reading ebooks over print books, and this trend is likely to continue in the years ahead.

Several factors are driving the rapid growth of ebooks:

1. Dedicated e-reading devices - Dedicated e-reading devices such as the Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader, Barnes & Noble nook and the upcoming Apple iPad have captured the hearts and eyeballs of book lovers. The devices offer crisp screens, adjustable font sizes, and the ability to instantly sample or purchase tens of thousands of books at the click of a button. For many book lovers, screen-reading is now preferable to paper reading.

2. Mobile phones - More people read ebooks on mobile phones than on dedicated e-readers. Free ebook apps like Stanza, Aldiko, eReader, Kobo, FBReader and Word-Player make it possible to read books an any smart phone. Thousands of free ebooks are available, including out-of-copyright classics as well as many new titles published by independent authors. Within the next few years, hundreds of millions of mobile phones will be ebook-ready.

3. Ebooks are more affordable - Most ebooks cost $10.00 or less, so they’re much more affordable than print books.

4. Impulse purchases - Ebooks offer instant gratification to the book buyer. Readers can easily sample or purchase a book at the click of a button, all without driving to the store.

Although ebooks are hot, authors shouldn’t abandon print. Authors should publish their novels as both print books and ebooks. It’s also important for authors to understand that although free services such as Smashwords make it easy to publish and distribute an ebook, it’s still up to the author to get out there and promote their book, otherwise it won’t sell well. For authors looking for marketing ideas they can implement at no cost, I wrote the Smashwords Book Marketing Guide at http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/305 (free download, no registration required).

Thanks, Mark!

Mark Coker is founder of Smashwords, a publisher and distributor of ebooks. He’s also the co-author, along with his wife, of Boob Tube, a novel that explores the dark side of Hollywood celebrity.

Lani Diane Rich
UPDATE ON 12/20/2009: We've selected our two winners at random and as soon as we hear back from them and confirm they can take the class, we'll post their names here! If they can't, we'll pick two more winners! they are Angel and Angie! Thanks to everyone who entered! The excerpts were great!

Once upon a time, long before Lani Diane Rich was a New York Times bestselling author of nine novels, she was an aspiring writer and stay-at-home mom living in Alaska. It was October 31, 2002, she was surfing the internet, and she happened across the National Novel Writing Month website.

Lani signed up for NaNoWriMo on a whim, and wrote what would become the RITA-award-winning Time Off for Good Behavior (Warner Books), the second-ever NaNoWriMo manuscript to be published. She followed that up with eight more novels, two of them NaNoWriMo manuscripts (Maybe Baby and Wish You Were Here).

She’s funny. She’s a great writer. And, best of all, she’s teaching an online workshop on revision over at Storywonk.com in January, and she’s offered to give away two slots in her class to NaNoWriMo participants!

Here’s an overview from Lani on the class:

“When you write a novel in the total freedom of NaNoWriMo, what you end up with is the good stuff---that rare, magical you-ness that can be difficult for authors to access when their internal editor is shouting commands and criticism over their shoulders. What you need from a revision process is to learn how to insert structure to make your magic accessible to the readers you'd like to have - agents, editors, or the mass populace. This Storywonk Revision class walks you through the revision process with this in mind, breaking revision into phases that allow you to focus on specific objectives with each pass. The six-week course includes live, weekly, online video classes (recorded for your convenience) and access to a private forum where I provide personal encouragement and answers to your questions.”

Want one of those two free slots? Just post the first paragraph from your 2009 NaNoWriMo novel in the comments section of this blog! Please include a link to your NaNoWriMo author profile or blog so we can get ahold of you and let you know you won. We’ll pick two excerpts at random on December 20, and you’ll be off to Storywonk revisionland!

Thanks, Lani! Good luck, everyone!

Chris

When historians look back over the 00's, November 2009 will be remembered for three news headlines that changed our lives forever:

1) Claims and Risk Management Service Provider Avizent Appoints Shirley Collinsworth to Lead Newly Created Transportation Liability Unit

2) Accuvant Named One of the Best Places to Work in Denver

3) NaNoWriMo Goes All Kinds of Crazy

Seriously.

General Stats Round Up!

(This is just for NaNoWriMo.org---NaNoWriMo's Young Writers Program was also absolutely enormous this year, and will have its own round-up).

• This year, we had 167,150 participants, up 40% from 2008's total of 119,301.
• We wrote a total of 2,427,190,537 words, up 48% from 2008's collective word count of 1,643,343,993.
• This averaged out to 14,531 words per person.
• We had 32,173 winners, up 48% from 2008's total of 21,683.
• This gave us a 19.2% win rate, the highest in modern NaNoWriMo history. (Last year we had an 18.2% win rate; in 2007 it was 15.1%).

Our Top 50 Wordiest NaNoWriMo Regions

1. Seattle
2. Maryland
3. Los Angeles
4. Germany and Austria
5. New York City
6. Chicago
7. Holland and Belgium
8. Twin Cities
9. London
10. Dallas/Ft. Worth
11. Portland
12. Atlanta
13. Denver
14. Austin
15. East Bay
16. Toronto
17. Northern Virginia
18. Boston
19. Melbourne
20. England, Elsewhere
21. Vancouver
22. Houston
23. Sydney
24. Sacramento
25. South Bay
26. New Hampshire
27. Finland
28. New Zealand
29. Philly
30. San Francisco
31. San Diego
32. St. Louis
33. Salt Lake City
34. Detroit
35. Birmingham-West Midlands
36. Sweden
37. Phoenix
38. Edmonton
39. Pennsylvania, Elsewhere
40. Pittsburgh
41. Michigan, Elsewhere
42. Central New Jersey
43. Kansas City
44. France
45. Raleigh-Durham
46. Maine
47. Ottawa
48. Orlando
49. Columbus
50. Australia, Elsewhere

Our Top 50 Wordiest NaNoWriMo Regions by Average Words Per Person

1. Margaret River, Australia
2. Tanzania,
3. Quebec, Quebec
4. Thailand
5. Emsdale, Ontario
6. Daytona Beach, Florida
7. Russellville, Arkansas
8. Moses Lake, Washington
9. Malta
10. Ridgecrest, California
11. Brevard County, Florida
12. Isle of Skye, Scotland
13. Fulton, Missouri
14. Kingsland, Georgia
15. Northern Ireland
16. Sebring, Florida
17. Latvia
18. Kewanee-Henry County, Illinois
19. Northeast Ireland
20. Sudbury, Ontario
21. Chadron, Nebraska
22. Lewisville, North Carolina
23. Cornwall, England
24. Oxford, Ohio
25. Dickinson, North Dakota
26. Plymouth, Massachusetts
27. Micronesia
28. Longview, Texas
29. Chattanooga, Tennessee
30. Richmond, Indiana
31. Central Iowa
32. Lake County, Ohio
33. Emporia, Kansas
34. Marion, Ohio
35. Lewis County, Washington
36. Exeter and Devon, England
37. Oxfordshire, England
38. Naperville, Illinois
39. France
40. Taiwan
41. Elsewhere, South Carolina
42. Key West, Florida
43. Niagara, Ontario
44. Gloucester and Cheltenham, England
45. Tiffin, Ohio
46. North Bay, Ontario
47. Bulgaria
48. McMinnville, Oregon
49. Elsewhere, Idaho
50. Switzerland

Our site traffic was also off the charts. Thanks to a generous educational grant covering our fall quarter, we were able to move to Amazon Web Services EC2, which completely rocked our pancakes, and allowed us to add dozens of servers in the blink of an eye. Which we did. Oh, did we ever. Site slowness was effectively ended. We rejoiced.

In November, we had 4,014,203 visits, up 44% from 2008. We had 25,710,491 pageviews, up 48% from 2008.

Top 50 NaNoWriMo Cities according to Google Analytics, based on Number of November Visits from those Fine Places

City/Visits
1. London 109,608
2. New York 53,280
3. Seattle 46,252
4. Los Angeles 44,234
5. Portland 39,124
6. San Francisco 38,047
7. Melbourne 33,916
8. Sydney 33,042
9. Denver 32,369
10. Chicago 32,237
11. (not set) 30,774
12. Minneapolis 24,113
13. Austin 20,101
14. Washington 19,305
15. Atlanta 18,880
16. Edmonton 17,392
17. Brisbane 16,332
18. St Louis 15,951
19. Sacramento 15,712
20. Houston 15,165
21. Calgary 15,107
22. Don Mills 15,026
23. Dallas 14,907
24. Salt Lake City 14,116
25. Manchester 13,957
26. Tucson 13,732
27. Vancouver 13,619
28. Columbus 13,381
29. Ottawa 13,182
30. Albuquerque 12,797
31. Phoenix 12,673
32. Helsinki 12,558
33. Philadelphia 12,295
34. Eugene 12,293
35. Raleigh 12,121
36. Perth 11,809
37. Indianapolis 11,377
38. San Antonio 11,294
39. Colorado Springs 11,167
40. Auckland 10,884
41. Dublin 10,788
42. Singapore 10,671
43. San Diego 10,639
44. Brooklyn 10,573
45. Pittsburgh 10,351
46. Madison 10,276
47. Honolulu 9965
48. Adelaide 9946
49. Birmingham 9908
50. Kansas City 9893

Top 50 NaNoWriMo Countries according to Google Analytics, based on Number of November Visits from those Fine Places

Country/Visits
1. United States 2,818,077
2. United Kingdom 314,267
3. Canada 282,009
4. Australia 117,785
5. Germany 64,368
6. Netherlands 52,598
7. Finland 29,774
8. Sweden 25,940
9. New Zealand 23,171
10. France 23,163
11. (not set) 18,304
12. Ireland 14,818
13. Norway 13,691
14. Japan 12,583
15. Philippines 11,383
16. South Africa 10,983
17. Singapore 10,717
18. Spain 10,626
19. Belgium 10,518
20. Denmark 10,193
21. India 10,172
22. Austria 8800
23. Mexico 8542
24. Italy 7572
25. Switzerland 7173
26. South Korea 6592
27. Malaysia 5731
28. Brazil 4657
29. Portugal 4450
30. Israel 3907
31. China 3513
32. Indonesia 3280
33. Poland 3205
34. Hong Kong 3085
35. Romania 2826
36. Hungary 2568
37. Argentina 2535
38. Russia 2427
39. Puerto Rico 2366
40. Estonia 2347
41. Latvia 1957
42. Turkey 1945
43. United Arab Emirates 1796
44. Czech Republic 1743
45. Chile 1652
46. Greece 1629
47. Thailand 1465
48. Iceland 1136
49. Guam 1127
50. Taiwan 1111

Yay, stats geeking!

So, if this was your first time, how did it go? If you're a returning Wrimo, how did this NaNoWriMo feel different from previous years? Did the bigger crowds make for a more exciting event? Or just bigger crowds? Did you meet any interesting characters at write-ins? Did your region move up the list of wordiness? We'd love to hear your thoughts, impressions, and highlights of NaNo 2009!

Chris

This is the kind of thing that only me and about four other people (hi, mom!) are interested in, but for those four people, I wanted to post a screenshot from Google Analytics showing yesterday's traffic to NaNoLand.

November 1 has always brought our servers to their knees. This year, Dan moved us to Amazon's EC2 cloud computing platform so we could try to better handle everyone who comes to the site in the Cyclone Window of October 30-November 4.

It's working. We saw "page timed out" screens during peak hours yesterday, and there are a couple other things we want to improve today and tomorrow. But so far this year's Cyclone Window has felt more like a Gentle Shower Window, despite the fact that we have 40,000 more people on the site this year than last. Then I got up this morning and saw exactly how much traffic the site had been handling yesterday and still chugging along. (For comparison, the 2008 traffic is in green.)

For the record, we had 271,320 visits in that 24-hour period, with our servers offering up 2,079,398 pages to visitors. Busiest day in NaNo history by an extraordinary margin.

Thanks so much to Dan for all his hard work (and lost weekends!). Thanks so much to all our halo'd donors for allowing us to improve our systems!

Back to my novel!

Chris

I've always found it uncanny the way perfectly healthy gadgets seem to implode during NaNoWriMo. Ipods that we're depending on for noveling soundtracks decide to spontaneously reformat themselves. Participants' laptops crash and burn with alarming frequency (usually taking everything from a few chapters to entire books with them when they go).

This is why it's such a great idea to email your novel to yourself via webmail every few days in November. It's also why I wasn't completely surprised today when the hard drive in my new Dell laptop got corrupted and died. Eeep! I've never had a computer just die before (see the sad photographic evidence, above). Anyone else getting the gadget meltdowns a little early this year?

Chris

So 2008 was a really great year for NaNoWriMo. We had an all-time-high win rate (18.2%), a record-smashing number of words written (1.6 billion), and a huge number of participants (119,301). After the event ended, we all spent a fair amount of time here on the blog scratching our heads over what made 2008 such a bountiful year for month-long noveling. Was it the recession? The historic nature of it being the 10th NaNoWriMo? The fact that November magically harbored five weekends that year?

Whatever it was, the numbers were very, very big.

This year is looking like NaNoWriMo will grow again. Site traffic is up 20%. Sign-ups are up 10% from this time last year, and we just sent out our annual "come back and write with us!" email to last year's participants (four days later than we did last year).

So here's the question: Why might more people be signing up to write novels this year than last? Is it still the recession giving people more free time for book-writing? Is it just more people hearing about the challenge through things like Twitter and Facebook? If this is your first year, what inspired you to take part now?

And does anyone care to take a guess on what this year's sign-up numbers for NaNoWriMo will be?

Excited and nervous,

Chris

On Friday, Lindsey and I spent the morning at Babylon Burning, the San Francisco screenprinter who is handling all the NaNoWriMo shirts (and new sweatshirt!) this year. We listened to the Strokes and the Shangri-Las, debated various Pantone colors and design dimensions, and watched as the team there began pulling the first of the new shirts off the line. Thanks so much to Babylon for hosting us! Here are some photos from the big day…

Arriving at Babylon

The line-up ahead of us

Boxes of blank shirts waiting to be transformed into NaNogoods

The films that get turned into screens

Mike, screening up a storm

Figuring out the right green color for the black NaNo '09 shirt took us almost an hour

The green picked, the shirts start rolling (and Clam starts stacking)

We wanted to make a fun, new NaNoWriMo shirt. Since NaNo feels a lot like camp to us, we asked our graphic design whiz Graham to make a design for "Camp NaNoWriMo." The slogan on the sign (hard to make out here) reads: "An idyllic writers retreat, smack-dab in the middle of your crazy life." We love Graham.

Close up of Camp NaNoWriMo shirts

One of the comments we get every year is that we need to offer more shirts for people who aren't participating that year, but who still want to show their support of NaNoWriMo. Designer Graham came up with a simple, all-purpose tee that we're totally in love with. It's the first white tee we've made since 2002!

We're doing the 2009 shirt on both black and cranberry. This is me proudly waving the first cranberry to come off the line.

And, for the first time ever: NaNoWriMo sweatshirts! We went with these incredibly thick, soft sweats that cost a little more. But they feel like you're being hugged by a thousand chinchillas.

Lindsey feels the chinchilla love.

Last Thursday the city of Oakland threw a big party to celebrate the "unveiling" of Uptown, the neighborhood where OLL has lived for the last three years. The neighborhood has really come a long way since we moved in, with a ton of great new cafes, bars, and the beautifully restored Fox Theater opening up in the past year. It's an exciting place to be!

Anyway, during the street party, our Development Director Elizabeth and I snuck up into a condo open house and I took this picture down onto the street party below. It showcases the great Fox theater sign, OLL's building, and the enormous black arrow that looms over our office day and night.

Has anyone out there in NaNoLand been to this part of Oakland recently? Does anyone else live with a looming arrow?

Yay, Oakland!

Chris