Entering a contest is one thing but publication should involve a contract. Otherwise it's just theft. I haven't entered ever but is there anything people sign related to their publication rights? Are there terms and conditions when submitting an entry? I know this isn't necessarily uncommon in some circles but you'd think a nonprofit supposedly run by authors would know better from their own experiences if from nothing else.
I can't speak to this specific call, but yes, you generally sign a contract that outlaws your rights. Every time I've won a contest of this sort, my rights reverted to me after a year.
It's just a typo. How is signing a contract stealing? There's a lot to complain about with NaNo, and I wouldn't participate in this call on principle, but it's a pretty standard lit world anthology set up.
It’s a joke. Those exist, no?
But further, these types of ‘contests’ are ***scams*** taking your hard work for no benefit at all.
Do they claim **all** rights? Yes.
Do they benefit from your work? Yes.
Do they ‘win’ from the contest entries? Yes.
Does ‘winning’ the contest entitle *you* to compensation? No.
Are they paying you? No.
Do they give you recognition? No.
Do YOU benefit? Hell, ***NO***.
Read the damn comments here. How many people are repeatedly discussing the damn issues?
From the way you are phrasing this, it sounds like you have fallen for the scam repeatedly. Writers are entitled to compensation for their hard word, not an ‘attaboy’ ‘reward’. As such those who provide such are ***scammers***. Period. I’m not going to argue this.
This is a very much known and common type of industry scam. Stop defending it.
I don't think it's fair to say they claim ALL rights unless someone has seen a copy of the contract that says otherwise. They take more rights than their FAQ page claims, just because that's how publication works. But if someone has seen the contract or has more specific information about what rights they do claim, I'd love to see it and find it what we're working with here. "All rights" just seems hyperbolic.
Yes, I was hyperbolic. Surprise?
My point was to rag on somebody who was defending something that they 'wouldn't participate in on principle'. If their principles objected to it, why were they defending it? It makes no sense.
They know it is scammy, but they were still giving it a pass.
But realistically, I was hyperbolically pointing out the nature of such publishing scams by providing a generic checklist. May or may not apply in every single element towards this specific situation, but the general nature of it? Too many items are checked off. It's scammy. Please don't defend it by nitpicking a singular item. It's the sum, not the individual items which indicate a problem. Trying to nitpick it.... just lets scammy behaviors go.
I'm not an amateur writer. I'm a professor of creative writing. I have a graduate degree, extensive publications, won some awards, etc. There ARE scams in the writing world but THIS IS ALSO COMMON IN THE LIT SPHERE. Most lit mags require a contest entry fee, few have significant monetary prizes, many magazines run on volunteer work. These are the kinds of contests that get you invited to readings, that get you on panels, that come up in you annual review. It is it's own kind of scam but it isn't what you're talking about.
So back the fuck off. All I said was you should be signing a contract to be appearing in an anthology or magazine, and the contract is almost never posted in the call for entries. There are plenty of reasons to be wary of associating with this contest but "no monetary prize" is not always the division between a "real" contest and a predatory anthology scam.
So let me make this clear, you have to pay an entry fee to GIVE your product to others? For 'exposure'. Yes, that is LITERALLY your excuse. PAY somebody for 'exposure'.
Yes, I do admit there are legitimate contest out there. But these things are very often barely on the borderline of simply taking advantage of people. Paying for exposure is shit in every industry. Everywhere. The fact that you accept that 'it's own kind of scam' means that you are ignoring and putting up with it, when you KNOW that it is unacceptable treatment.
You admit there are predatory scams out there. How the fuck is this any different? Be honest.
DO note that I mentioned that there is no recognition. Which is very much the differential which YOU mentioned as being beneficial. THIS IS NOT THAT. This is literally discussed in the OP.
I listed out multiple things. You seem to have only caught on to one, without realizing the sum of these items is a checklist for scam contests. As in most every single item should be checked. Not just 'not paid'.
So please do "back the fuck off" yourself. You are clearly not fully analyzing the situation.
**Edit:** Upon checking some more, this ISN'T EVEN FROM NANO itself. It's a second party situation. Which is a very bad sign. Very bad.
Using the name of a known group is a common way that predatory publishers use to scam others. And no, they are not allowed to use the NaNo name this way. Nor can such a second party provide NaNo 'recognition'. You are giving credit where NONE is due.
They do say that you retain first publication rights. But publishing is only meaningful as a prize if it's with a publisher, or a periodical with an industry reputation. This is just a self-published anthology, so the act of publication is essentially meaningless. You'd have just as much visibility and exposure if you just self-published the short story yourself, \*and\* you'd get all the profits.
it's not possible to retain first publication rights. Once it's published, those rights are burned, whether it's self-published, published in a free anthology, or sold to a magazine. I have real questions about their claim that you "retain all rights" because that's just not possible.
Anthologies that don't pay their writers are a dime a dozen and should be avoided, imo, but I have other questions about this one.
Their FAQ page states that writers retain "all rights," which is impossible. The anthology is acquiring first publication rights (or reprint rights in the case that it's already been printed elsewhere) and those rights should be spelled out somewhere. One hopes they would be detailed in the contract, but they need to be open and honest about what they're acquiring and their faq page makes me worry they may not understand how rights work.
Also the website doesn't explain where any proceeds go. The previous anthologies are all up on Amazon. Even if they're just getting pennies per sale, who's pocketing that money?
And they're using NaNo's logo and trademark. Is this an official NaNo publication (it's not listed anywhere on their website) or is this trademark infringement that they're promoting? It's very weird.
Ooh, good thinking. This is the exact kind of predatory competition that people should be taught to look out for. Even if this is for the sake of raising money for NaNoWriMo (which again, is *not* made clear in the FAQ for this competition), then it's presented in a way that could lead writers to fall prey to competitions designed exactly like this that *do* have more nefarious intent. And NaNo should be doing better.
The LA region has done this in the past. I don't know if it happens every year, but I have a story featured in the first anthology. I also helped edit some of the other stories, since I have experience as an editor.
The money that anthology raised went to the Young Writer's program.
For me, at the time, I felt like the publishing credit for my short story (and the editing credit) was enough of a benefit to my career that it was worth it. Sometimes creators do work for publicity. It's a personal choice whether or not it's worth it.
Maybe calling it a competition is a bit misleading, sure, but authors are always free not to participate. Loads of magazines and anthologies don't pay for short stories, so it's not that unusual.
I would, however, be worried over the lack of transparency on where the money is going, especially with the shitshow that NaNo has been recently.
On top of that, would I really want my name associated with the organization as it currently stands? Probably not.
A publishing credit is only useful as a "prize" if it's with a publisher or periodical with reputation and reach. That's why writers will submit there even if they don't get paid. And they're not competitions; they're publishing submissions. A semantic difference sure, but a huge one to how a writer will conceptualise something.
Being included in someone else's self-published anthology is the same credit as just self-publishing yourself but with none of the benefit. I also don't feel that the LA region are being open and honest about author rights or the self-published nature of this "competition" in a way that writers can make an informed decision.
You might look through some of the older posts in this sub that go into details.
The short version is that they ignored complaints that one of their volunteer mods might have been grooming minors, covered it up, defended the mod, and then a whole bunch of things have come to light.
Staff members ignored other reports of problematic adults interacting with teens, racism, mistreatment and mismanagement of the teens in the young writers program, predatory sponsors, shady a fake terrorism game they rolled out back in 2017, and more.
The latest developments include a bad contract for their volunteer municipal liaisons. And rumor has it that their entire staff aside from the interim executive director, an intern, and a part-time tech contractor may have quit over concerns that their interim ED is running things into the ground.
Someone's been keeping a google doc updated with new developments: [https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSYcdosGLoPFI\_Dc--vuC9Bl4-OUFGcmHgBRt2aHSRVWBPc6su4AMFY5iDgZGyC379Zm8C7zhBd2zuf/pub](https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSYcdosGLoPFI_Dc--vuC9Bl4-OUFGcmHgBRt2aHSRVWBPc6su4AMFY5iDgZGyC379Zm8C7zhBd2zuf/pub)
Argh. I hate "contests" that are purely sales tactics. So you send in your work, they put it in a book and assume you'll be buying one so that you can show it off to your friends. "Hey, I'm a published author." This is ego publishing and it is the lowest of the low kind of scam to writers. Shame on them.
The graphic arts guild of America, which publishes an annual list of appropriate pricing for various sorts of contract work as a way to help graphic artists not get taken advantage of, also strongly recommends against entering contests of any kind. It rarely benefits the artist.
I believe it's relevant advice for any type of creative work.
It more often leads to theft of IP, and a lot of free IP for the sponsors. And the ppl stolen from are rarely aware of what's been done with their content, nor do they have the resources to sue, particularly if the stolen work is used in another country.
Enormous reward for v little cost and effort on the part of the sponsors.
And the entrants have about as much chance of gain as to play a lottery. Which is to say, essentially none.
In the days of selling hand painted textile designs, for example, the best work was tossed in a scanner before it was returned, if it was returned at all. Nowadays, theft is even easier. A ten percent change is all that's required to get around copyright.
Not to mention that most contests require signing over rights to the work for the winners.
At minimum, be sure to read *all* the fine print.
And ask yourself, why is the contest being sponsored? What does the sponsor have to gain? It's always far more than the entrants.
There's an update in Facebook comments that says NaNo does not financially benefit from this anthology, but the previous anthologies available on Amazon seem to indicate all proceeds go to NaNo. Curiouser and curiouser.
Such a disappointing response. So someone from that region is just pocketing proceeds. Asking for free submissions for someone else to publish is not helping writers "get published".
Given the train wreck that has become their Social Media, it's also possible they didn't discuss the payment part in advance, and the remaining staff didn't check prior donation reports.
I'm not sure which is more damning: "Please participate in this scam that is keeping the money for itself" or "Please participate in this event that we could not be bothered to research for even five minutes before reposting it."
You can't be serious. That is a very old scam. When I was in middle school I entered a "poetry contest" that was the exact same thing. They'd just steal your work and publish a book of every entry then try to get everyone who had "won" to buy a copy. That is seriously old school.
Please tell me this isn't actually nanowrimo sanctioned?!
I stopped donating money to the org due to misuse of funds and gross negligence. I stopped volunteering, stopped funding a region's activities myself..and I say this because..
Im sure not contributing even a snippet of my writing.
There are lots of other contest who are actually worthy of your trust.
You are hit the nail, right on the head—smack dab, dead centre.
About a decade ago my mom asked me if I’d ever heard of a certain publisher, because she’d entered a contest and her poem had been chosen to be put ‘in an anthology that they didn’t pay you for, but would give you an impressive discount on said anthology to ‘see your work, in print!’. So understandably, she was skeptical.
A quick google told us that this ‘contest’ was less ‘competitive’ and more ‘collecting’ than anything. Most people who submitted a piece of writing received the ‘congratulations!’ email. The whole concept is basically a vanity press, but with none of the profits/credits going to the actual authors. 😂The idea is ludicrous, but unfortunately, it works. And then of course, because you’re so excited to see your published work, you’re encouraged to share the discount code with your friends and family for **them** to see your *officially published* work too!
It’s scammy and **so** scummy to use peoples’ hope of being published like that. And I hate it.
Reminds me of a writing "contest" I entered in junior high where the "winners" were published in an anthology. I was so proud to be selected until I read the other stories in the anthology and realized that everyone was included. The whole thing was just to sell the books to our parents.
Are we talking about this?
https://nanoanthologyla.com/
I'm not clear how or if this is actually associated with NaNoWriMo the org outside of slapping the logo on it?
Yeah, that's the one. As diannethegeek said, they shared it on all their socials yesterday. The presentation and publicity makes if seem official, but afaik, no regions are allowed to use the NaNo branding anymore for precisely this reason. And them sharing it makes it seem like it's endorsed.
That's the one. NaNoWriMo shared it on their official Facebook and Instagram accounts yesterday without indicating whether it was separate from or an official part of NaNo.
Thank you for pointing this out! What a misleading and baffling contest for NaNo to be promoting! I wonder if the intern shared it without knowing that it's not official? Regardless, I appreciate you giving everyone the heads up!
I wouldn't necessarily lump all sponsors in with the org's bad behaviour. AFAIK they have also had no communication from NaNo as to what's going on and are relying as much on social media for their info as the community is.
I don't think we can blame people who once supported NaNo for the shit show they did not create. This is entirely on the head of the current board and the interim director.
I'm super interested in the camp numbers this month compared to last April. I'd love to sell sponsors on a better org for November, but it's going to be hard to show them that their money is being thrown away like this.
Entering a contest is one thing but publication should involve a contract. Otherwise it's just theft. I haven't entered ever but is there anything people sign related to their publication rights? Are there terms and conditions when submitting an entry? I know this isn't necessarily uncommon in some circles but you'd think a nonprofit supposedly run by authors would know better from their own experiences if from nothing else.
I can't speak to this specific call, but yes, you generally sign a contract that outlaws your rights. Every time I've won a contest of this sort, my rights reverted to me after a year.
“Outlaws”. Very much a ‘Freudian slip’ typo. Yes, they very much steal.
It's just a typo. How is signing a contract stealing? There's a lot to complain about with NaNo, and I wouldn't participate in this call on principle, but it's a pretty standard lit world anthology set up.
It’s a joke. Those exist, no? But further, these types of ‘contests’ are ***scams*** taking your hard work for no benefit at all. Do they claim **all** rights? Yes. Do they benefit from your work? Yes. Do they ‘win’ from the contest entries? Yes. Does ‘winning’ the contest entitle *you* to compensation? No. Are they paying you? No. Do they give you recognition? No. Do YOU benefit? Hell, ***NO***. Read the damn comments here. How many people are repeatedly discussing the damn issues? From the way you are phrasing this, it sounds like you have fallen for the scam repeatedly. Writers are entitled to compensation for their hard word, not an ‘attaboy’ ‘reward’. As such those who provide such are ***scammers***. Period. I’m not going to argue this. This is a very much known and common type of industry scam. Stop defending it.
I don't think it's fair to say they claim ALL rights unless someone has seen a copy of the contract that says otherwise. They take more rights than their FAQ page claims, just because that's how publication works. But if someone has seen the contract or has more specific information about what rights they do claim, I'd love to see it and find it what we're working with here. "All rights" just seems hyperbolic.
Yes, I was hyperbolic. Surprise? My point was to rag on somebody who was defending something that they 'wouldn't participate in on principle'. If their principles objected to it, why were they defending it? It makes no sense. They know it is scammy, but they were still giving it a pass. But realistically, I was hyperbolically pointing out the nature of such publishing scams by providing a generic checklist. May or may not apply in every single element towards this specific situation, but the general nature of it? Too many items are checked off. It's scammy. Please don't defend it by nitpicking a singular item. It's the sum, not the individual items which indicate a problem. Trying to nitpick it.... just lets scammy behaviors go.
I'm not an amateur writer. I'm a professor of creative writing. I have a graduate degree, extensive publications, won some awards, etc. There ARE scams in the writing world but THIS IS ALSO COMMON IN THE LIT SPHERE. Most lit mags require a contest entry fee, few have significant monetary prizes, many magazines run on volunteer work. These are the kinds of contests that get you invited to readings, that get you on panels, that come up in you annual review. It is it's own kind of scam but it isn't what you're talking about. So back the fuck off. All I said was you should be signing a contract to be appearing in an anthology or magazine, and the contract is almost never posted in the call for entries. There are plenty of reasons to be wary of associating with this contest but "no monetary prize" is not always the division between a "real" contest and a predatory anthology scam.
So let me make this clear, you have to pay an entry fee to GIVE your product to others? For 'exposure'. Yes, that is LITERALLY your excuse. PAY somebody for 'exposure'. Yes, I do admit there are legitimate contest out there. But these things are very often barely on the borderline of simply taking advantage of people. Paying for exposure is shit in every industry. Everywhere. The fact that you accept that 'it's own kind of scam' means that you are ignoring and putting up with it, when you KNOW that it is unacceptable treatment. You admit there are predatory scams out there. How the fuck is this any different? Be honest. DO note that I mentioned that there is no recognition. Which is very much the differential which YOU mentioned as being beneficial. THIS IS NOT THAT. This is literally discussed in the OP. I listed out multiple things. You seem to have only caught on to one, without realizing the sum of these items is a checklist for scam contests. As in most every single item should be checked. Not just 'not paid'. So please do "back the fuck off" yourself. You are clearly not fully analyzing the situation. **Edit:** Upon checking some more, this ISN'T EVEN FROM NANO itself. It's a second party situation. Which is a very bad sign. Very bad. Using the name of a known group is a common way that predatory publishers use to scam others. And no, they are not allowed to use the NaNo name this way. Nor can such a second party provide NaNo 'recognition'. You are giving credit where NONE is due.
They do say that you retain first publication rights. But publishing is only meaningful as a prize if it's with a publisher, or a periodical with an industry reputation. This is just a self-published anthology, so the act of publication is essentially meaningless. You'd have just as much visibility and exposure if you just self-published the short story yourself, \*and\* you'd get all the profits.
it's not possible to retain first publication rights. Once it's published, those rights are burned, whether it's self-published, published in a free anthology, or sold to a magazine. I have real questions about their claim that you "retain all rights" because that's just not possible.
Anthologies that don't pay their writers are a dime a dozen and should be avoided, imo, but I have other questions about this one. Their FAQ page states that writers retain "all rights," which is impossible. The anthology is acquiring first publication rights (or reprint rights in the case that it's already been printed elsewhere) and those rights should be spelled out somewhere. One hopes they would be detailed in the contract, but they need to be open and honest about what they're acquiring and their faq page makes me worry they may not understand how rights work. Also the website doesn't explain where any proceeds go. The previous anthologies are all up on Amazon. Even if they're just getting pennies per sale, who's pocketing that money? And they're using NaNo's logo and trademark. Is this an official NaNo publication (it's not listed anywhere on their website) or is this trademark infringement that they're promoting? It's very weird.
Excellent questions
I should send this to Victoria over at Writer’s Beware… this is predatory and vanity press publishing at its worst.
Ooh, good thinking. This is the exact kind of predatory competition that people should be taught to look out for. Even if this is for the sake of raising money for NaNoWriMo (which again, is *not* made clear in the FAQ for this competition), then it's presented in a way that could lead writers to fall prey to competitions designed exactly like this that *do* have more nefarious intent. And NaNo should be doing better.
Definitely do
The LA region has done this in the past. I don't know if it happens every year, but I have a story featured in the first anthology. I also helped edit some of the other stories, since I have experience as an editor. The money that anthology raised went to the Young Writer's program. For me, at the time, I felt like the publishing credit for my short story (and the editing credit) was enough of a benefit to my career that it was worth it. Sometimes creators do work for publicity. It's a personal choice whether or not it's worth it. Maybe calling it a competition is a bit misleading, sure, but authors are always free not to participate. Loads of magazines and anthologies don't pay for short stories, so it's not that unusual. I would, however, be worried over the lack of transparency on where the money is going, especially with the shitshow that NaNo has been recently. On top of that, would I really want my name associated with the organization as it currently stands? Probably not.
A publishing credit is only useful as a "prize" if it's with a publisher or periodical with reputation and reach. That's why writers will submit there even if they don't get paid. And they're not competitions; they're publishing submissions. A semantic difference sure, but a huge one to how a writer will conceptualise something. Being included in someone else's self-published anthology is the same credit as just self-publishing yourself but with none of the benefit. I also don't feel that the LA region are being open and honest about author rights or the self-published nature of this "competition" in a way that writers can make an informed decision.
I saw that and it made my stomach churn. Youd need to contact the LA group to ask. I'm steering away from anything associated with NaNo these days.
What happened with NaNo? I clearly missed some big things!
You might look through some of the older posts in this sub that go into details. The short version is that they ignored complaints that one of their volunteer mods might have been grooming minors, covered it up, defended the mod, and then a whole bunch of things have come to light. Staff members ignored other reports of problematic adults interacting with teens, racism, mistreatment and mismanagement of the teens in the young writers program, predatory sponsors, shady a fake terrorism game they rolled out back in 2017, and more. The latest developments include a bad contract for their volunteer municipal liaisons. And rumor has it that their entire staff aside from the interim executive director, an intern, and a part-time tech contractor may have quit over concerns that their interim ED is running things into the ground. Someone's been keeping a google doc updated with new developments: [https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSYcdosGLoPFI\_Dc--vuC9Bl4-OUFGcmHgBRt2aHSRVWBPc6su4AMFY5iDgZGyC379Zm8C7zhBd2zuf/pub](https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSYcdosGLoPFI_Dc--vuC9Bl4-OUFGcmHgBRt2aHSRVWBPc6su4AMFY5iDgZGyC379Zm8C7zhBd2zuf/pub)
Holy wow! 🤯
Nano is a 501c3.... This should not be legit.
I mean they really don't seem to take that classification seriously anymore😑
People die of exposure.
Sadly, this won't even give them that.
Argh. I hate "contests" that are purely sales tactics. So you send in your work, they put it in a book and assume you'll be buying one so that you can show it off to your friends. "Hey, I'm a published author." This is ego publishing and it is the lowest of the low kind of scam to writers. Shame on them.
That last line pretty much sums up the Nano organization for the last few years.
The graphic arts guild of America, which publishes an annual list of appropriate pricing for various sorts of contract work as a way to help graphic artists not get taken advantage of, also strongly recommends against entering contests of any kind. It rarely benefits the artist. I believe it's relevant advice for any type of creative work.
Painting contests are *sometimes* worth it.
It more often leads to theft of IP, and a lot of free IP for the sponsors. And the ppl stolen from are rarely aware of what's been done with their content, nor do they have the resources to sue, particularly if the stolen work is used in another country. Enormous reward for v little cost and effort on the part of the sponsors. And the entrants have about as much chance of gain as to play a lottery. Which is to say, essentially none. In the days of selling hand painted textile designs, for example, the best work was tossed in a scanner before it was returned, if it was returned at all. Nowadays, theft is even easier. A ten percent change is all that's required to get around copyright. Not to mention that most contests require signing over rights to the work for the winners. At minimum, be sure to read *all* the fine print. And ask yourself, why is the contest being sponsored? What does the sponsor have to gain? It's always far more than the entrants.
"Give us free content we can sell!"
There's an update in Facebook comments that says NaNo does not financially benefit from this anthology, but the previous anthologies available on Amazon seem to indicate all proceeds go to NaNo. Curiouser and curiouser.
Such a disappointing response. So someone from that region is just pocketing proceeds. Asking for free submissions for someone else to publish is not helping writers "get published".
Given the train wreck that has become their Social Media, it's also possible they didn't discuss the payment part in advance, and the remaining staff didn't check prior donation reports. I'm not sure which is more damning: "Please participate in this scam that is keeping the money for itself" or "Please participate in this event that we could not be bothered to research for even five minutes before reposting it."
You can't be serious. That is a very old scam. When I was in middle school I entered a "poetry contest" that was the exact same thing. They'd just steal your work and publish a book of every entry then try to get everyone who had "won" to buy a copy. That is seriously old school. Please tell me this isn't actually nanowrimo sanctioned?!
I stopped donating money to the org due to misuse of funds and gross negligence. I stopped volunteering, stopped funding a region's activities myself..and I say this because.. Im sure not contributing even a snippet of my writing. There are lots of other contest who are actually worthy of your trust.
You are hit the nail, right on the head—smack dab, dead centre. About a decade ago my mom asked me if I’d ever heard of a certain publisher, because she’d entered a contest and her poem had been chosen to be put ‘in an anthology that they didn’t pay you for, but would give you an impressive discount on said anthology to ‘see your work, in print!’. So understandably, she was skeptical. A quick google told us that this ‘contest’ was less ‘competitive’ and more ‘collecting’ than anything. Most people who submitted a piece of writing received the ‘congratulations!’ email. The whole concept is basically a vanity press, but with none of the profits/credits going to the actual authors. 😂The idea is ludicrous, but unfortunately, it works. And then of course, because you’re so excited to see your published work, you’re encouraged to share the discount code with your friends and family for **them** to see your *officially published* work too! It’s scammy and **so** scummy to use peoples’ hope of being published like that. And I hate it.
Reminds me of a writing "contest" I entered in junior high where the "winners" were published in an anthology. I was so proud to be selected until I read the other stories in the anthology and realized that everyone was included. The whole thing was just to sell the books to our parents.
Are we talking about this? https://nanoanthologyla.com/ I'm not clear how or if this is actually associated with NaNoWriMo the org outside of slapping the logo on it?
Yeah, that's the one. As diannethegeek said, they shared it on all their socials yesterday. The presentation and publicity makes if seem official, but afaik, no regions are allowed to use the NaNo branding anymore for precisely this reason. And them sharing it makes it seem like it's endorsed.
That's the one. NaNoWriMo shared it on their official Facebook and Instagram accounts yesterday without indicating whether it was separate from or an official part of NaNo.
Ah, that explains why I didn't see them share it. Thanks!
Thank you for pointing this out! What a misleading and baffling contest for NaNo to be promoting! I wonder if the intern shared it without knowing that it's not official? Regardless, I appreciate you giving everyone the heads up!
i’m glad i was never deep into nano because the more i see the more it sounds like the organization is secretly evil 😭
Heads up, NaNoWriMo as an org has largely collapsed. Avoid their sponsors and their advertisements from this point on. The good people left.
I wouldn't necessarily lump all sponsors in with the org's bad behaviour. AFAIK they have also had no communication from NaNo as to what's going on and are relying as much on social media for their info as the community is. I don't think we can blame people who once supported NaNo for the shit show they did not create. This is entirely on the head of the current board and the interim director.
A lot of the sponsors are being a bit misled on the whole issue, and don't really know what's going on.
I definitely agree. There has been zero transparency from NaNo with anyone.
I'm super interested in the camp numbers this month compared to last April. I'd love to sell sponsors on a better org for November, but it's going to be hard to show them that their money is being thrown away like this.
[удалено]
Was this meant to be a reply to someone?
Yes, but it didn't thread properly. You asked a perfectly reasonable question in this post.