Stacy Conradt
11 NaNoWriMo Books That Have Been Published
by Stacy Conradt - November 11, 2011 - 11:11 PM

It’s November, of course, and while that means turkey, football and marathon shopping for some, it’s a month of being hunched over at a laptop slurping cup after cup of caffeine for others.

Yep – it’s NaNoWriMo, AKA National Novel Writing Month. People who are crazy ambitious enough to accept the challenge aim to write 50,000 words in the 30 days of November, which is about 1,667 words every day. While no one expects masterpieces to be written in such a short time span – the goal is to force writers to get some words down on paper without overthinking it – sometimes it happens. Sara Gruen’s Water for Elephants is a particularly successful example. But she’s not the only author to see buckling down and hammering out 50,000 words in a month pay off. Here are 11 other NaNo books that can be found on the shelves at a bookstore near you.

1. The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern. Might this be another Water for Elephants-style success? It’s currently on the Barnes and Noble Top 100 List and the New York Times Bestseller list. She cheated a little and wrote it during two NaNos, but we’re not holding it against her. Has anyone read this? I’ve got a sample of it on my Nook right now but haven’t gotten to it yet.

2. Persistence of Memory by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes. Published just last year, this YA effort is about a teen who suffers from an alter ego. That alter ego might actually be a vampire who is thousands of years old (the vampire craze is still going strong obviously).

3. BreakupBabe by Rebecca Agiewich.

4. Take the Reins by Jessica Burkhart. This was actually the first book in what has become a very successful pre-teen series for Burkhart. The Canterwood Crest novels began with a draft of Take the Reins in 2006’s NaNo.

5. The Movie by Bosley Gravel.

6. Livvie Owen Lived Here by Sarah Dooley, a story from the point of view of an autistic 14-year-old.

7. Losing Faith by Denise Jaden. When her sister (Faith, of course) dies from injuries sustained in a fall off of a cliff (!), a girl named Brie finds that a religious cult may have been behind Faith’s death.

8. The Compound by Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen. A tale of a family locked away in an underground bunker, The Compound received a 2009 Bank Street Award for Best Children’s Book of the Year.

9. The Hungry Season by T. Greenwood.

10. Olivia Bean, Trivia Queen by Donna Gephart. It comes out in March 2012 with Random House Children’s Books, but when it does, we can look forward to a Flossy-like girl named Olivia Bean who’s headed to Hollywood to be on Jeopardy!

11. The God Patent by Ransom Stephens.

This is just a small sampling of authors who have had their NaNo books published. Are any of you doing NaNoWriMo this year? I’m not… but I’m thinking I’ll jump back into it next year.

For 11-11-11, we’ve been posting twenty-four ’11 lists’ throughout the day. You can see them all here.

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Comments (17)

  1. The Night Circus is fantastic! I didn’t know it was from NaNoWriMo, but that’s kind of inspiring.

    posted by Caitlin on 11-11-2011 at 11:10 pm

  2. Amelia Atwater-Rhodes has been writing her vampire novels for over 10 years. I loved her stuff in middle school, even though most of her works have been novels on the slimmer end of the spectrum.

    posted by Nicci on 11-11-2011 at 11:35 pm

  3. I read The Night Circus and would recommend it.

    posted by Jeninlb on 11-12-2011 at 12:40 am

  4. I just finished the Night Circus and actually recommended it to a coworker for her book club. It’s a great read.

    posted by Ashley on 11-12-2011 at 1:02 am

  5. Go ahead and download all of The Night Circus. Once you stop you won’t be able to put it down.

    posted by Lynda on 11-12-2011 at 2:12 am

  6. I’m tooling away on a NaNoWriMo. I’m at about 18,500 words so far, which puts me at just about on pace.

    However, I’ve never written anything this long, and I’m at the point where I’m starting to run out of steam for the plot

    posted by Kevin on 11-12-2011 at 3:52 am

  7. My novel, Defective, came from last year’s NaNoWriMo. I’m doing NaNoWriMo again this year, but am way off the pace, too busy at work!

    posted by Cindy Vine on 11-12-2011 at 4:03 am

  8. I haven’t actually read any of these yet. Might be worth a trip to the library when I get all my time back in Decemeber!
    I’m doing it this year but I reckon the furthest my book is going to go is into the ‘Uneditable’ folder on my computer :P

    posted by Hammy on 11-12-2011 at 5:32 am

  9. Truly, Deeply Disturbed by Andrew Nienaber is another. It’s a story of a serial killer who murders only rude people, finding love and a family. Good stuff.

    posted by Dotcomaphobe on 11-12-2011 at 7:57 am

  10. Just finished The Night Circus; it was wonderful!

    posted by Chris on 11-12-2011 at 11:10 am

  11. Have not read The Hungry Season by T. Greenwood yet, but would highly recommend all of her other books!

    posted by Regina on 11-12-2011 at 1:08 pm

  12. Check out “Dragon in the Snow” by Forrest Dylan Bryant. Written during last year’s NoNoWriMo. Amazon has it and it’s a totally fun read.

    posted by Decca on 11-12-2011 at 1:51 pm

  13. Anna & The French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins started out as a NaNo novel, I believe. I’m doing NaNo this year, but so far behind, I don’t think there’s any way I’ll catch up. The nice thing about it is, even if you technically lose, you win.

    posted by Karen on 11-12-2011 at 3:55 pm

  14. I’ve got one of mine on Amazon, but I don’t know if that counts…

    posted by Gargus on 11-12-2011 at 11:52 pm

  15. I’m not doing it this year, but next year I might try dust off one of the old ones and re-write it. It’s the discipline I need to sit down every day and do it that I lack!!!

    posted by Mum in Awe on 11-14-2011 at 9:08 am

  16. I’m doing NaNo for the 3rd time if you include “Camp Nano” last summer. It’s a great way to get past any of several inhibitions that can keep you from writing.
    I assume you’re not counting self-published books in your tally, or the number would be a good deal higher — and would include my first NaNo novel, Twin-Bred, available on Amazon, the Nook Store and Smashwords :-) . . . .

    posted by Karen A. wyle on 11-14-2011 at 4:21 pm

  17. I didn’t know The Compound was written during NaNoWriMo!

    Another book I had read that was written during this time is “The Latte Rebellion”. It’s a very quirky book.

    posted by Chihuahua0 on 11-20-2011 at 9:06 am

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