NaNoWriMo is shutting down.
This is old news.
But, still relevant.
The writing organization that hosted the enormously popular National Novel Writing Month each November, along with smaller writing prompts to motivate writers throughout the year, officially closed its doors in April of this year (2025).
When November rolls around, the gaping hole the organization left behind will be felt by many. And although we personally advocate for InNoWriLife (International Novel Writing Life, where we write every day of our lives instead of just for a month) over NaNoWriMo, the fact remains that NaNo was a very influential organization and mission for a lot of people.
So, what happened?
How can an organization that was such an integral part of the writer experience lose its footing, seemingly overnight?
Thanks to the transparency of interim director Kilby Blades, we have a detailed account of what caused the organization’s unexpected closure.
This article isn’t about bashing the nonprofit organization, but rather taking inventory of what can be learned from such a tragic loss after 26 years.
If you are a self-publisher looking for ways to build the best business possible, there are some valuable takeaways from NaNoWriMo’s shutdown that we’ll discuss in detail below.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
A brief history of NaNoWriMo
Author Chris Baty started what is now known as NaNoWriMo in 1999. He, along with 21 other writers, set out to complete a 50,000-word novel in a month. This is how he described their start:
I wasn’t sure most of us were going to make it through the first week. I thought we would start writing, get overwhelmed by our own ineptitude, drop out, and never talk about it again. But it turned out to be more fun than we ever dreamed. –Chris Baty, SmallPrintMagazine.com
Over the next seven years, the popularity of the yearly event grew, and by 2006, with over 75,000 participants, it became a registered nonprofit organization.
2011 saw website updates to keep up with demand, as well as an announcement from Baty that he would step down from the executive director position the following year.
In January 2012, Baty moved to “board member emeritus” status, and Grant Faulkner became the new executive director. The same year, the organization sought donations for a website redesign to keep up with the organization’s growth.
The next decade saw continued growth in NaNoWriMo’s yearly participation from writers, including a focus on kids and teen writing with their Young Writers Program.
In 2017, the organization reached out to the community again for donations to redesign the website. The updated site launched in 2019.
In 2023, Grant Faulkner stepped down as executive director, and board member Kirby Blades moved into the position.
In the aftermath of the organization’s abrupt closure, we now know that more was going on behind the scenes. According to Kirby Blades, a lot was happening that was not made public knowledge. Based on her detailed accounts of the events, let’s consider four challenges the organization faced and the strategies we can use in our own author businesses to avoid similar pitfalls.
The quotes (including timestamps) from interim executive director Kirby Blades below were pulled directly from The State of NaNoWriMo – A Community Update – March 2025 video.
1. The need for fiscal integrity
Blades’ quote (1:46):
Nanorimo operated at a budget deficit for four of the past six years, which means it wasn’t netting enough in donations and other income to support itself. During those years, cash reserves were drawn from to make up for budget shortfalls. And when cash reserves jumped up again in 2020, that was due to a $150,000 COVID relief loan that was taken out by previous leadership. Without that loan, the organization would have operated at a deficit for five out of the past six years rather than four. Most nonprofits that are struggling to this degree and that experience prolonged difficulties go to their communities with candor about the seriousness of their situation. But if you look back at the fundraising messages that went out to our community over this period, there is very little signaling that the organization was in distress. Build strong communities through transparency
Throughout the video, Blades points to the organization’s financial struggles and lack of transparency to the public. If you’ve run a business, you understand the inherent challenges of dealing with money. It can be a slippery beast.
P. T. Barnum said it best:
“Money is a terrible master but an excellent servant.”
One of the best definitions I found on financial integrity came from the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) website. On it, the organization offers the following definition:
Financial integrity is about ensuring that the financial system operates in a clean, transparent, and accountable way. That economic and financial activities are conducted in line with the legitimate financial rules and standards, and that these are contributing to sustainable development.
While the UNDP is referring to governance on a much larger scale (i.e., institutions, states, societies, etc.), these words are applicable across the board. Whether we’re talking NaNoWriMo or our one-person author brand, understanding our budget, where it’s going, and how to keep it in the green is critical.
The quote that “money makes the world go round” is nuanced for sure since lots of things impact how the world functions, but you get it. We need money to do stuff, including running our businesses successfully, and it’s not just having money in our possession. It’s knowing what to do with it when we have it, and how to get more if necessary.
Blades admits that NaNoWriMo wasn’t completely transparent about the organization’s financial struggles, which effectively tied off one of their potentially lucrative streams of financial support.
In the articles we post on the self-publishing school website, we often discuss the importance of establishing a budget, marketing effectively, and thinking outside the box when it comes to financing your publishing journey, including inviting others to be part of the process.
As you build your author career, know your numbers and how to ask for help if you need it. Having fiscal integrity will come in handy when making decisions that directly impact the success of your business.
2. Representation matters
Blades’ quote (7:03):
We discovered that even though we had an all-ages policy on our main NanoRimo site and a dedicated young writers program with its own website, none of our staff or our 800 volunteers had completed state-mandated child safety training. We discovered that staff had not subjected volunteers to formal applications that required them to give us their legal name, address, phone numbers, or any verified identifying information. That’s important because when the board got involved with accusations made against the moderator and contacted the FBI’s National Center for Missing or Exploited Children in order to understand what we should do in this situation, we were asked who this volunteer was, but we literally could not tell the authorities the legal identity of this person. The organization didn’t keep those kinds of records.
As self-publishers, we are the author and publisher. This means we have to be extra vigilant in our research when it comes to who we add to our teams and the companies we align ourselves with—i.e., read the fine print. Whether it’s an editor, beta reader, cover designer, or ads platform, do your due diligence. Not paying attention to details, taking shortcuts, or choosing the cheapest option can bite you later.
Keep records for your protection and remember that not everyone will have your best interest in mind, so trust your gut. If it smells funny, walk away.
3. Put fires out quickly
Blades said (7:58):
By December of 2023, less than a month after the complaints were brought to light, I voluntarily resigned from the board and came in on a six-month contract basis to be the interim executive director. The idea was to bring in someone who understood youth-facing organizations who had experience with the required statemandated training. My other talents were also desirable given the organization’s financial problems. Formal business and fundraising experience was a major reason why I had been recruited to the board.
If you’ve self-published a book before, then you know to expect the unexpected. I don’t know a single author who has ever had a seamless publishing experience, whether traditional or independent.
There are SO many moving pieces in the publishing process, from ideation, writing, and editing, to design, publishing, and marketing. Road bumps like these can happen:
- You’re a third of the way through your manuscript when you realize your main character is passive—the action is happening to her instead of her initiating the action and moving the story forward.
- You need an update to your book cover design, but the designer is no longer on the platform.
- You discovered in a 1-star review that three of the pages from your book are missing or were put in the wrong order during printing.
These little fires can become big ones REALLY fast. The worst thing you can do is sit on them and hope they’ll get better. Assess the damage, take action by fixing the issue as quickly as possible. Letting little fires fan into bigger ones only causes more problems later.
4. Keep up with technology
Blades’ said (3:37):
For anybody who does Nanorimo every year, you know that we have our share of technical problems and that our website looks and functions like it was built years ago, which it was. Our last major technology upgrade was 7 years ago in 2018. Chronic underinvestment in both our Nanorimo and our young writers program websites have made both sites hard to maintain and near their breaking points.
Technology moves at the speed of light. Twenty years ago, print-on-demand was the new technology. Early adopters (me included) found a way to play the publishing game without the downside of stored inventory, maxed-out budgets, and distribution limitations. I can confidently say that if I hadn’t learned about print-on-demand when I wrote my first book, I probably would have stored it in a drawer somewhere and forgotten about it. Spending thousands of dollars on inventory and storage was not in my budget, so I sought other ways to publish my book.
Book publishing as a career was not my original path. I fell into the publishing industry because of technology, and I don’t regret it.
I’ve learned to embrace technology as a tool, not a replacement for my creativity, and that has worked well for me. I don’t believe that every new technological advancement is ideal; in fact, many of the productivity apps I’ve tried have made my work more difficult, so I choose old-school methods that work for me.
However, not embracing some forms of technology can do more harm than good.
You don’t have to embrace every new technology that comes out, but you also don’t want to be stuck back in the Stone Age. Keep your hand on the pulse of technological advancements that align with our industry, and ask yourself these questions:
- Am I as productive as I want to be as a writer?
- Is my author website clean, easy to navigate, and aesthetically pleasing?
- Are there any new publishing platforms that might be a better fit for my brand?
- Do I need a tool to help me stay focused?
- Is there technology available to help me improve my workflow?
- Could automation help me with tasks like newsletters, outreach, or book launches?
- Am I using analytics to understand my audience so I can make improvements?
- How am I protecting my work from cyber threats?
Technology comes in all shapes and sizes. Some you barely know are there, while others completely take over. Assess your needs and decide on the level of support that works best for you.
For example, if you have an author website that loads slowly and is super hard to navigate, you’re going to lose visitors. If you can, hire a website designer to improve user experience (UX). If hiring someone is not in your budget, several platforms are easy to set up (e.g., Squarespace, WordPress.com, etc.) that include easy-to-install templates that look great.
Key takeaways
For all of NaNoWriMo’s struggles, it got a lot of things right, namely creating a platform and community that gave authors a place to grow their craft alongside other like-minded writers.
I was one of the writers who jumped on the NaNoWriMo train when I started my fiction-writing journey. It was eye-opening to be in the company of so many writers just like me. The experiences helped ground me in the writing culture and showed me that no matter how isolating writing can feel sometimes, there are others out there experiencing the same thing, so we are not alone.
Who knows? Maybe there’s another writing organization just around the corner, ready to take up the mantle that NaNoWriMo had to put down. If so, let’s hope they get it right.
In the video around timestamp 11:32, Blades talks about “being intentional about ways that we could serve our mission excellently…” As we approach our careers as authors and self-publishers, thinking about excellence in serving our readers is a great place to start.
