NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) is almost upon us! For those not in the know, NaNoWriMo is an annual event wherein writers attempt, and often succeed, in writing a novel (or at least 50,000 words of one!) within the month of November.
You can sign up on the NaNoWriMo non-profit website, for free, and track your progress and the progress of your friends and fellow authors. This is a great motivation tool for many authors and a great socialization tool for many more. There are often local “write-ins” where writers can gather and write together.
Overall, NaNoWriMo has been a great thing for many authors, new and established. But for some of the newer authors, there is a question that haunts the edge of their excitement. A sinister whisper that slows them down, makes them hesitate…
What do I do now?
What do you do with that 50,000 word novel once you’ve overcome all of those incredible odds to finally finish it?
Well, that’s where the 2017 NaNoWriMo Writing Tools Bundle comes in! And I am very excited to be a part of it!
My book, Blood from Your Own Pen: A Practical Guide on Self-Editing and Common Mistakes: For Beginning Authors Who Intend to Survive to Publication, is all about the first step you should take after finishing your novel: editing it yourself.
“Before you pay an editor to bleed red all over your manuscript with their pen, grab hold of as many of these rules as you can and squeeze them until the metaphorical blood drips from your imaginary fist. Use it to fill your own red pen and then go bleed red on your story first. You will get more benefit, and learn more, from an editor who doesn’t have to correct these kinds of mistakes for you.
And it will cost you less in the long run. You will never find anyone else in the writing world whose blood is less precious or expensive than your own.”
I cover a lot of ground in the book, but it is aimed at those who need it most so that it won’t overwhelm you despite the massive table of contents. Trust me, this is a great place to start, but don’t just take my word for it! Check these out:
“As an editor of slush piles, I wish I could make reading this book a required prerequisite. As an author, this book has been invaluable in helping me submit professional manuscripts. The chapters are short and get straight to the point, packing this book full of advice. It is a must have for beginning authors, and a great reference and reminder for the seasoned author. If you plan on submitting your story somewhere, definitely get this book.” –J.L. Zenor, author and CEO of The Midnight Writers
“There are a lot of guides for writers, and this one fills a particular niche aimed at the beginning fiction writer. It covers a lot of ground, from cover letters and formatting, to punctuation and word choice. Because it covers so much ground, the four-page table of contents is a godsend.
Beginners will get a lot out of it, and even advanced/professional writers may find it useful.
There is a lot of solid, practical advice here, so this guide has earned a spot on my reference shelf.” –Steve Ruskin, author of America’s First Great Eclipse
“If you think you know what you’re doing, or you think you don’t know, or you think you do but don’t, then don’t think twice about buying this book. It’s got a little something for everybody, and everybody needs a little something, sometimes. Take it from somebody who learned more about what he doesn’t know than what he thought he knew he didn’t know. And because of this book, now he does.” –Rick Duffy, author of “Ari’s Song”, Adventures in Zookeeping
“A great resource of information and helpful reminders for writing and editing. Very easy to follow, fun examples, and help with those everyday stumpers that seem to plague us all here and there.” – Jessica Lauren Gabarron, author of “Ether and Chrome”, Sidekicks
“Learn something new about writing, and remember what you forgot.
This simple sentence is the perfect description of Blood From Your Own Pen by Sam Knight.
“Do I need a comma in this sentence?” “Should I insert an em-dash or an ellipsis?” “Is this verb appropriate in my dialogue tag?” “How can I tell the difference between a passive voice and an active voice?” These are great questions, and the answers in this book will improve a writers ability to engage an audience and avoid grammatical distractions.
Time is a fickle beast, and it wreaks havoc on a writer’s memory. A writing technique someone hasn’t used in some time could be helpful in new material, but that little nugget of knowledge might have slipped through the cracks of history, unable to assist in perfecting prose. Do you want a great refresher to bring it back to life? This book will jolt the memory toolbox and put the panache back in pen.
So, do yourself a favor and buy a copy of this book. Your readers will thank you for it.” — Rod Spurgeon, author of the Starcruiser Galaxy stories
BUT WAIT! That’s not all! That was just my book! That was just the very start of the 2017 NaNoWriMo Writing Tools Bundle!
(Okay, for those who don’t know how StoryBundle works, it is a “pay what you want” format, with anything more that you choose to pay going to the authors, StoryBundle, and charity. This bundle will support the Challenger Learning Centers for Space Science Education. And you get to choose the ratio of the allocations. More on that here, at StoryBundle. and here, on Kevin J. Anderson’s blog about this bundle.)
For $5, or more if you beleive it is worth more (trust me, it is!) the initial titles in the 2017 NaNoWriMo Writing Tools Bundle are:
• Blood From Your Own Pen by Sam Knight
• Q&A For Science Fiction Writers by Mike Resnick
• The Unofficial Scrivener Workbook by Michael J. Carlson
• Story Structure and Master Chapter Outline Workbook by C. Michelle Jefferies
On top of those, if you pay more than the bonus price of $15, you get all four of the above titles, plus NINE more:
• Time Management by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
• The Magic Bakery by Dean Wesley Smith
• Excel for Self Publishers by M.L. Humphrey
• Excel for Writers by M.L. Humphrey
• Hurting Your Characters by Michael J. Carlson
• Business For Breakfast Vol. 6: The Healthy Professional Writer by Leah Cutter
• Writing as a Team Sport by Kevin J. Anderson
• How to Make a Living With Your Writing by Joanna Penn
• The Author’s Guide to Vellum by Chuck Heintzelman
Take a good look at those titles! If you aren’t sure of what to do with your NaNoWriMo novel (or any novel for that matter!), these will help you get there. If you are, or considering, self-publishing, this StoryBundle is a must with the information on how to use Scrivener, Excel, and Vellum.
This collection was curated by Kevin J. Anderson and you can get more details on each of the titles and read what he has to say about the bundle here:
https://storybundle.com/blog/nanowrimowritingtoolsbundle2017/
I also want to point out that Kevin’s book, Writing as a Team Sport: Reflections on the Art of Collaboration, is brand new and has never been available before and still isn’t available anywhere else!
This bundle is e-books only. The books titles come in both .mobi and .epub formats, which means you can read them on Amazon Kindle, Apple iPad, any Android tablet or any other ebook reader, as well as your smart phone and PC, you just have to have an app that uses those formats. (Generally those apps are free!)
The 2017 NaNoWriMo Writing Tools Bundle is available for a limited time (only through November!) so don’t wait too long! It’s just like writing that novel. If you procrastinate now, you’ll procrastinate later, and then it’ll never happen…