[jdriselvato]

I love NaNoWriMo and have written and won every year since 2019. My only issue is once the month is complete, no one cares about your novel or that you finished it.

So when I got laid off earlier in the year I started working on an alternative to NaNo.

https://penpinery.com

At the moment it's in MVP but it current has:

- Author profiles w/ blogging - Publication cataloging + reader reviews - WIP cataloging with word count tracking - A community feed similar to Goodreads + WIP word count updates

The idea is I think NaNo could be more social post-November. With Pen Pinery's current MVP I think Authors can build a readership fanbase much easier than anything NaNo could do.

In the future I want to also have goal tracking based on pages instead of word count and for editing as well. I also think there's a lot of potential for building out an ARC sign up system.

Pretty much I've self-published 15+ books and I'm putting everything that worked for me into a social author/reading platform.

Authors who use NaNo or are completely against it, I'd love to get some feedback on the concept from a description standpoint. Any thoughts or tips?

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Since this is YC, the tech stack is Django 4, Postgres and Bootstrap 5; Hosted on DigitalOcean.

[notatoad]

So as a reader the only way to see any content is to purchase a book?

i love self-published books and back a few authors on patreon that i've found on royalroad, but there's not a chance i'd be buying books from unkown self-published authors without even a few sample chapters. especially not when the pitch is that it's something an author has created by churning out as much wordcount as possible during a writing challenge.

[jdriselvato]

Good question.

We're not a marketplace just like NaNoWriMo isn't a marketplace. As an author you build an author profile (like any other social media) and link directly to where people buy books (Except we have catered icons for Ao3, Amazon, wattpad, quotev, etc that show up on the profile).

So the cataloging of publications on the profile is just like Amazon's author profile, GoodReads' author profile, a person website, etc it's another place for people to find ones work.

The plus side of an author profile is if you share your publications they can rank on the community feed where new readers can organically find your novel. Then go to Amazon, B&N, etc and purchase it.

The reader can also follow the author so if the author adds blog posts they'll see it show up on the feed. Which I think will be a great way for Authors to talk about book tours, new novel releases or WIP they're starting.

It isn't so much about wordcount is the focus but building an author brand on the platform where ones publications, WIP and posts are all talking to the same algo on the community feed. Here people can easily find new authors and what they are working on in an author/reader relationship I haven't found else where.

[drusepth]

Very cool idea; I always wished the NaNoWriMo energy would persist past November. That's actually why I added forums to my own writing site and have had _decent_ luck keeping the momentum going year-round (at least, some years).

If you end up adding an API or looking for other sites to partner with, feel free to reach out sometime (email on profile). Not sure what your needs are but I might be able to help from Notebook.ai. :)

[jdriselvato]

I love the concept of Notebook.ai, thanks for sharing that.

When I was writing my first fantasy novel I was messing around with Notion templates (almost a local wiki in a sense) just to organize weapons, factions/governments, religions, etc. It didn't work as well as I expected and I had been wishing something like your service existed the whole time. Well done!

For time being, I'll put together a little blog post about Notebook.ai to let the community know about it. I know there's writers out there that are looking for this exact product. I appreciate the comment!

[drusepth]

That'd be awesome, thank you! Would love to read it when it's done! :)

Reach out any time!

[boznz]

Nice concept, for me and millions of others at the mercy of the Amazon algorithm to what we read next I may try a few books here.

You are right nobody cares about your novel but the rush from finishing and publishing something even if nobody reads it is pretty satisfying.

[jdriselvato]

Right now I'm in the middle of the chicken and the egg problem where we don't have enough authors cataloging their publications and b/c of that obviously readers are not interested in using the site.

I've gone back and forth with taking Open Libray's [0] catalog as that would at least flesh out our collection of books but then I'd have to deal with verifying authors to accounts so they can access their books. Which sounds like a major headache and also just defeats the concept of building a community.

Since this is really a weekend project, I'm just going to keep building the tools out to perfection and hope people will trickle in over time.

Luckily for me I just want to write, so the tools I'm building are exactly what works for my writing goals and I think overtime others will find the same value.

[0] https://openlibrary.org

[boznz]

Thanks for both links, anything to get away from the algorithm that keeps recommending the same military Sci-Fi to me just because I liked Old Man's War and Enders Game! The big sites should all have a big reset algorithm button IMHO.

As another author I am happy to create an account and pop my "masterpiece" on and re-link it for the 100 or so bots that visit my website every year.

Holiday coming up in a few week's time, so I have downloaded your first book for a read so at least you got something good from your post :-)

[meristohm]

Why are you at the mercy of Amazon's algorithm?

Have you tried asking for recommendations from your librarian(s)? On my public library's website there's a form for this, and if I'm ever at a loss for what to read next (I usually go with recommendations from friends, family, and HN threads) I'd either ask this way or in person.

There's also the NPR Book Concierge, BookPage (paid for here by Friends of the Library), and the Libby app, with lists put together by librarians and a option to see similar books (based on keywords? Sometimes the list items don't make much sense, but I have found some good ones this way).

[schaefer]

you say you're in MVP, so it may be a bit early for this but, it's really surprising to me that the landing page is not geared towards readers trying to discover new authors.

[jdriselvato]

At the moment we're trying to get authors on the platform to build up the "marketplace" (although we're not a traditional marketplace of selling books).

The great thing about authors is they should be reading just as much as they write. So in a sense, we're able to build both sides of the coin by marketing to a single user from the start.