30 Covers, 30 Days 2018: Wrap-Up!

That’s a wrap on another NaNoWriMo, which means it’s the end of another year’s 30 Covers, 30 Days series! Whether you wrote fifty words or fifty thousand, you got your stories onto the page! So pat yourself on the back. I’ll wait here.

Excellent! I want to talk a little bit about this project; as this was my second year coordinating the series, I got to read all of your nearly three thousand synopses, and every one of them brought something unique to the table. I’m seriously blown away by how amazing your novels – and the covers they inspired – have turned out to be.

Before I get to the fast facts about this year’s series, I need to extend a few words of thanks.

First, immense thanks as always to the amazing Debbie Millman, for facilitating this project every year, gathering all these fantastic designers in one place, and for designing a cover herself! Thanks for all your help getting this project off the ground, and answering all my questions along the way.

This wouldn’t be possible without all the designers who volunteered to make covers this year (and in years past). You made some stunning covers, on a short deadline, for free, frequently ahead of schedule, and with enthusiasm every day. Thanks for your patience and quick responses to all of my emails, and for making covers that thirty authors will cherish, and that amazed, thrilled, puzzled, and inspired writers on the blog, forums, and beyond all month long.

If you received a cover, or just felt inspired by one, please take a moment to let these designers know how cool they are; the complete list of designers, including links to their websites and social media, is available at the end of the post.

If you want to leave some feedback, there’s a form available! This helps us tweak and tune up the project each year.

Finally, thank you to all of you who took on the challenge, submitted synopses throughout October and November, and for keeping up with the blog and forum posts every day.

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As with every year, of course, November only has thirty short days – and with them, only thirty lucky writers selected for each edition of the project via our proprietary, time-bending, squirrel-powered synopsis algorithm.

This year, we had winners from all around the world, including from Iceland, Nigeria, and Peru. And, as novels from Young Writers made up about a quarter of submissions, there were set to be seven YWP covers. Alas, a couple of them fell through a hole in time and space and there ended up being only five; next year will have the complete set. There was also a wide range of genres represented:

We also used the keywords and tags from thousands of submissions to create a word tree!

Please give another round of applause to the designers who contributed their time and effort to this awesome project!

John Hamilton designed Enemy Music
Katie Manos designed The Ghosts of Miller Manor
Jesse Hernandez designed Apologize
Michelle Hobbs designed Autumn’s Blessing
Michael Braley designed The White Darkness
Kelly Knaga designed No Results Found
Alberto Rigau designed Shadow of Twilight
Kevin Perry designed Red Riding, P.I.
Henry Sene Yee designed The Killing Thing
Cookie Redding designed Sunsets and Tea
David Hisaya Asari designed We Could Be Heroes
Mark Pagano designed Dragon Kingdom & The Wishing Stone
Don Hollis designed Perspicuus
Richard Ljoenes designed The Girl and the Guardians
Alexandra Alcantara designed The Island
Josh Ege designed Trapped
Val Head designed Cracking Up
Traci Larson designed Monroe & Patsy: A Few Times Too Many
Eva Crawford designed Nursing Holmes
Frances Yllana designed Albion Grove
Courtney Glancy designed To Stand Tall Amongst the Stars
Christopher Simmons designed Unprompted
Tan Le designed Windycrest
Debbie Millman designed The Circle
Roshanak Keyghobadi designed Balaton
Nick Fierro designed Emu
Wesley Sueker designed Combat Mind
Ksenya Samarskaya designed The Author
Adriane Stark designed Bianca, It’s Complicated!
Jina Anne designed The Sorcerer’s Maid

It’s been a blast helping coordinate 30 Covers, 30 Days once more. I’m looking forward to seeing next year’s covers!

-Nick Fierro, Editorial & Programs Intern