11 NaNoWriMo Books That Have Been Published

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. She 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 a couple years ago, 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. Olivia Bean heads 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. Know of others? Are any of you doing NaNoWriMo this year?

This article originally appeared last NaNoWriMo.