#30c30d

To represent Day 9 of NaNo, we have another community feature! Give it up for Four People Can't Save the World by Christy Ogawa, a Fantasy novel! This cover was chosen because of the cover perfectly conveying the title. The contrast of the regular stick figures with the ones that represent the characters are very fun. Even though they're stick figures, you get a glimpse of their personalities, and it leaves you wanting to open up the book for more.

Four People Can't Save the World

A bull named Fleidermaus rises from the dead and attacks a cowboy. The new owner of a sushi restaurant shows signs of anemia. Mysterious disappearances in a small town tempt some plucky twins to return to the business of sleuthing. When these bizarre happenings collide, the fate of the world hangs in the balance. And by "hangs," we mean it awkwardly hovers there like a party guest who does not get the hint that it's time to go home.

About the Author/Artist

Christy Ogawa sneaks in writing time between chasing after identical twin toddlers that are already much smarter than she is. The universe has gifted her with them and also with basically the best dog ever. She'd like to humbly request it also give her a bungalow with a private beach and a full-time writing career. And maybe a gig guest-judging a reality TV show where people bake things under unrealistic time limits. She is a rule-follower who has put aside writing her memoir, The Customer Service in Hell, because it's not NaMeWriMo. She has no socials to link, so would the universe please also give her a brilliant Instagram (or whatever is cool now) that makes her seem immensely creative yet humble and relatable. Amen.

Cover Design Process:

As we catch up on 30C30D, we want to introduce our very first community feature! Today, we're featuring Young Adult novel Roses for the Wallflower by misterpseudonym. This cover was chosen for perfectly conveying the story and genre. It has great composition, art, and even the fonts are fitting! It's definitely a cover you can imagine on a bookshelf somewhere! (Plus, pink is always a plus.)

(Wondering about the community features? This year, we're highlighting designers who are also NaNo participants! Read more about it in our main 30 Covers, 30 Days post!)

Roses for the Wallflower

Ever since he was twelve, local cryptozoology nerd Quinn Campbell has had three recurring daydreams: Mothman terrorizing his highschool, finally getting a picture of Bigfoot, and marrying his childhood best friend, Daniela Ryder, on a beach far, far away from here. Then the new kid in town, Eira Slate, shows up with swinging fists - earning himself detention with Dani and the reputation of 'bad boy heartthrob' quicker than Quinn can say "phony."

Now he needs to debunk every reason for his six-year crush to go for the rebel, but his investigation might be interrupted by the mystery of why Eira keeps showing up everywhere he doesn't want him. Including his head.

About the Author/Artist

Hey, Wrimos!

It’s that time of the year again: 30 Covers 30 Day Sign-up season! This year, we’re doing things a little bit differently. We’ll still have the classic 30C30D experience in which you get the chance to have a cover designed by a professional graphic designer. Alongside the professional designs though, we’re adding the chance to highlight designers in our community!

So, let’s get all that information rolling!

What’s 30 Covers, 30 Days?

Every November, a handful of Wrimos will be selected to receive a unique cover for their NaNoWriMo Novel! These covers are designed in 96 hours by a group of talented and diverse professional graphic designers, recruited by our amazing 30C30D coordinator, Debbie Millman.

This year, 22 lucky Wrimos will be chosen!

When November hits, you’ll get to see a new cover daily on the forums, as well as the NaNo blog and Instagram! Past covers can be seen here.

How do I get a cover from a professional designer?

All you have to do is fill out this form and nominate your own novel!

Here’s some things to keep in mind:

If you make any mistakes, feel free to edit your previous submission! Make sure you send a copy of the form to yourself at the very end. If you want to remove your submission altogether, please go back in the form and check off the box that asks for removal at the very end.

You do not have to share your real name on the nomination form. Preferred names, pen names, or any kind of name you’d like to use are not only welcomed, but celebrated!

Wait, what’s this about a community feature?

Notice how we only have 22 covers done by professional designers this year? Well, who’s going to fill out the other 8 days?

That’s when the community comes in!

We’ve noticed a lot of you are talented designers in your own right and we wanted a chance to showcase those designs. This cover can be one you’ve created in your own free time or a cover someone created for you in the Artisan Forums.

Sweet! How do I submit a nomination for the community feature?

All you have to do is fill out this form and submit an image of the cover design!

Here’s something super important to keep in mind:

Please make sure both the artist and writer are aware their cover art/novel is being submitted! We know that in the NaNo forums, getting cover art is usually a gift from another Wrimo. As a result, please make sure you have permission from the artist or writer before submitting! Maybe send them a private message to make sure. (Of course, this doesn’t apply to you if you designed your own cover.)

Can I submit to both forms?

Sure! But you won’t be picked for both.

Can I use AI Images in my cover design?

In general, the goal of participating in NaNoWriMo is to motivate yourself to write and give yourself space to develop your creativity. We want to carry that idea onto any visual art presented here as well! It’s less about a sophisticated end project and more of the fun journey you took, isn’t it?

Furthermore, AI image generators can run into some very specific legal and ethical issues. Here’s a few articles if you want to learn more about this topic!

The great AI art debate just got even messier: New study reveals copyrighted images can be reproduced.

Artists talk about how AI blurs creative and ethical boundaries

Given these concerns, we’re asking both professional and community designers not to use AI generated artwork for their submissions.

While you’re out there in the writing world, we’ll be working hard and reading through everyone’s submissions! If your cover is chosen, expect an email from us!

The submission forms will be open until November 15.

If you have any questions, feel free to post in the forums or send me a message there!

Good luck!

And that’s a wrap! If you want to see any of the individual posts, feel free to look through the 30C30D tag. This year, we included community features for the first time, and I'm very glad we did! It's amazing to see what talent we have in our community. 30C30D continues to be a celebration of stories and art, no matter how long you've been creating. I'm grateful to be a part of that experience!

For Day 25, we're featuring a cover designed and written by YWP author Sylvie Witherspoon called The Ups and Downs of a Baby-Sitter Witch, a Fantasy novel.

The Ups and Downs of a Baby-Sitter Witch

On the verge of being kicked out her coven, Moria, a teen witch who dabbles in reanimation, is sent to a collect supplies for a very important potion…at Fairyland Theme Park.

Completely out of her element, Moria grudgingly sets out to find ingredients like "tears of a spoiled child" and "teenage lust" while under the guise of a toy store employee. To complicate things further, four year old Lucy falls into her care.

Lucy's everything Moria isn't—hyper, friendly, a pink-loving wanna-be-princess—but Moria finds herself beginning to care for her spunky ward. Then, as a serious plot deep within the workings of Fairyland begins to reveal itself, a terrible accident befalls Lucy. Caught between feelings and worlds, Moria must learn how to be strong AND kind, or she may not be able to fulfill a baby-sitter's core purpose: to keep their charge alive.

About the Author

Sylvie Witherspoon is a 16-year-old writer/illustrator and nerd who loves brainstorming story ideas and filling up stacks of sketchbooks. She drafted her first full-length novel at age 13, her second at 14, and has been writing (and drawing) with the goal of being published ever since. She hopes The Ups and Downs of the Babysitter Witch will be her first true graphic novel, combining three of her favorite things: an unconventional heroine, quirky humor, and spooky magic! You can find her drooling over the best middle-grade/YA books at her local library, where she hopes her own creations will someday populate the shelves.

Cover Design Process:

This year. we gave designers the optional prompt to explain their design process for the cover! Here's Sylvie's thoughts:

For Day 28, we're featuring a cover designed and written by author Erica Manwaring titled Reassembling Kate, a Mainstream novel.

Reassembling Kate

Kate Monroe is a successful businesswoman with a fractured past. Her little brother died when she was 5 and she has never been the same. One day she finds herself having an out-of-body experience but she can’t get back. She is forced to stand on the sidelines and watch her body carrying on, and doing a better job of it, without her. Her life, and the people in it, were not what she thought.

Just as she starts to lose hope and resign herself to being a ghost in her own lifetime her colleague, David, in the middle of a boring meeting, looks her straight in the eyes. She manages to find a way to communicate with him and together they hatch a plan to save her. Progress is slow until she discovers more disembodied voices like her and follows them to a hidden place where she finds their owners, lost like her. Isobel, the well-meaning matron; Richard, bookish and kind; Fi, the woman with a tragic past; Morwena, full of anger and fire; Mary, dangerously fun; and Cathy, the brat.

Initially these people are bafflingly ok with their circumstance. Then David arrives and helps her realise she is inside her own head talking to parts of her psyche. She is furious at their influence in her life but her only way back is to try to become friends. As she does so Kate comes to understand just how damaged she had become and why.

But not all the parts of herself want to come quietly. Mary, the angry teenager, kidnaps Cathy, Kate’s inner child, and makes a run for it, invited in by a mysterious woman into her own mental world. There is no choice but to go after them. They find Cathy held hostage. The Woman lives only inside her head and has no qualms about stealing other people’s minds for the company. It is only by all working together that Kate succeeds where she would once have failed.

Back home she finds out David is actually a mind walker too and had been borrowing David’s body. He leaves her heartbroken until she is sitting in a café and meets a man she has never met but who she instantly recognises.

About the Author

Writer of things a little bit weird, a little bit true. Author of three books exploring how people cope with and thrive in our challenging world through the lens of contemporary fantasy. You can find me at www.dean-park.com or on Facebook or Instagram @ EricaManwaring

Cover Design Process:

This year. we gave designers the optional prompt to explain their design process for the cover! Here's Erica's thoughts:

For Day 26, we're featuring a cover designed by Emma for Young Adult novel Kleine Streuner by Rose Witt!

Kleine Streuner

A frustrated law student decides to move to Brighton, UK to kickstart her career as a streamer. There she makes the acquaintance of two established streamers who agree to support her in her endeavor to reach her subscriber goal milestone. However, unbeknownst to her, these two streamers pursue their own goals in agreeing to put a certified nobody on the map.

About the Artist

Emma has always had a keen interest in the visual arts but it hasn’t been until taking up a harrowing university degree that painting and graphic design has become her sorely needed outlet. 

Her socials can be found here: instagram.com/elmovert 

Cover Design Process:

This year. we gave designers the optional prompt to explain their design process for the cover! Here's Emma's thoughts:

Representing day 12 is The Shell Game by YWP Writer Stella Holt, and it's a wonderful Thriller/Suspense novel. This cover was designed by the amazing returning designer, Victoria Pickett!

The Shell Game

A chef. A range officer. A museum curator.

Three people.

One spy.

Jamie McNamara is a bounty hunter but she doesn’t hunt people. Not after a job-gone-wrong three years ago. So when she’s approached with a mission to find Derek Knox, a rogue sleeper agent, and get him back to his employers, she fears the contractor knows more about her past than she’d like. But unfortunately, he pays well, and she’s broke.

She accepts the job, but quickly realizes there’s more to it than she thought. The rogue agent is currently hiding under one of three potential covers. Her task is to find out which two are innocents, and which one is the spy.

But the deeper Jamie gets into the job, the more questions arise. At first, all three people appear harmless. But then not only does Jamie find questionable connections with one of them, all three of their innocence is put in doubt.

There’s only one spy. But what if the other two aren’t all they seem, either?

About the Author

When not stressing out about how few hours are in the day, Stella Holt loves finding beauty in Creation; from the mystique of a caliginous night, to the simple wonder of existence.

About the Designer

Victoria is a recovering design educator working in the Mayor's Office of Urban Analytics and Innovation at the City of Cleveland. She made the leap from academia to city government almost a year ago. She works with data analysts in data visualization and creates infographics. She enjoys contributing to a team whose work is doing good. This is her fifth year designing a cover for NaNoWriMo.

Cover Design Process:

This year. we gave designers the optional prompt to explain their design process for the cover! Here's Victoria's: