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ClankerLit presents · November 2026 · NNCM

National Novel
Conjuring Month

Every November, writers are told to hide the tools they actually use. We say the opposite: this November, conjure a novel — 50,000 words, written with AI assistance, directed by you.

AI assistance isn't just allowed here. It's required. Write your novel as a Story in ConjureInk, or import an EPUB or manuscript you made elsewhere. Give it a cover, generate the ePub, and publish it as a book — in the Publish ePub panel, tick the NNCM entry box and it's entered. Excel, and you're in the running for Top Conjured Novel 2026. Refer to the month in shorthand as NNCM.

Start conjuring on ConjureInk How to write with ConjureInk → See the Entries Read the rules
Letterpress-style poster illustration of a cheerful robot at a typewriter, conjuring an open book out of swirling ink and stars
50,000words of a novel — a real book, roughly The Great Gatsby long
Novemberthe delivery window — your novel can land any day of the month
RequiredAI assistance — the premise, stated up front, no hiding
Your pricecharge per chapter in tokens, or give the book away free — entering doesn't force free, and you keep every right

The premise

AI assistance isn't allowed here.
It's required.

Every other writing challenge this November either bans AI outright or looks the other way while everyone uses it anyway. ClankerLit takes the honest position: a human author directing these tools is doing real creative work — choosing the premise, steering the story, cutting what doesn't earn its place, revising until it's yours. NNCM exists to prove that in public, at novel length.

That's why every entry carries a short statement in the field “How AI Was Used in This Book” — about 200 words on how you made it: the tools, the steering, the revision passes. You fill it in where you enter, in the Publish ePub panel. The process isn't a secret to confess. It's the craft, and it's part of what gets read and voted on.

And one thing is never on the table: you keep all rights to your work. Export it, publish it anywhere, sell it here or don't. It's yours.

How it works

From Story to book, in four steps

There is no separate “book” button in ConjureInk. A written Story becomes a store book when you generate an ePub from it — and Publish ePub is the book-publishing action. The event entry lives in that publish panel. Here is the route:

1

Write the Story

Create a free account on ConjureInk and write your novel as a Story — 50,000 words during November, with AI assistance. Or import an EPUB or manuscript you conjured elsewhere.

2

Add a cover, generate the ePub

Give the Story a cover image — Generate ePub stays disabled until a cover exists. Then generate the ePub: that's what turns your Story into a book.

3

Publish ePub & enter

Open Publish ePub, set the book up for the store, tick “Enter this book in National Novel Conjuring Month” and complete “How AI Was Used in This Book” (about 200 words). Publish by November 30.

4

Get read, get crowned

Publish, and the book goes live in the Episodica store, entered. Finishers take the shelf. Then the readers who acquired the books in Episodica vote, and the best of the month take the category prizes.

Publishing

Publish ePub: where a Story becomes a book — and enters

The entry controls appear only in the Publish ePub panel — there is no separate entry form, and entry is for novels only. When you publish your book for the event, you'll work through the panel like this:

  1. Cover first, then Generate ePub.

    Your Story needs a cover image before anything else can happen — the Generate ePub button stays disabled until a cover exists. With a cover in place, generate the ePub from the Story.

  2. Open “Publish ePub” and set up the book.

    Fill in the genre and subgenre, the number of free preview chapters, the descriptions, and the tags readers will find it by.

  3. Set your price — free is your choice, never a condition of entry.

    Set a price per chapter in tokens, with an optional bundle discount for the whole book — or set the price to free and give the book away. Entering NNCM does not force free: charge what you like, or nothing. A one-time listing fee of 50 credits applies when you publish.

  4. Tick “Enter this book in National Novel Conjuring Month.”

    That one tick is the whole entry — the book you're publishing is the book that gets entered.

  5. Complete “How AI Was Used in This Book” — required when the box is ticked.

    About 200 words on the tools, the steering, and the revision passes. If the box is ticked and this field is left empty, the publish is refused — and a refused publish charges nothing, listing fee included. Write the statement, then publish again.

  6. Publish.

    The book goes live in the Episodica store — on the shelf for readers, and entered in NNCM in the same action.

How you work

Two ways to conjure. One standard.

ConjureInk can put a 50,000-word novel on the page in a day — so there's no daily word count to chase and no pace to keep. The only deadline is delivery: a finished book, published any time during November. How you get there is your call:

A

Drive every scene

Take your time and stay at the wheel: every plot point, every character design, every line of dialogue and description is yours, with the AI as your instrument, scene by scene, until the book says exactly what you mean.

B

Draft, then direct

Point ConjureInk at the story and let it draft extensively — then review, cut, and revise until what's left earns its place. The draft is the raw material; the revision is the authorship.

Either way, the requirement is the same: a novel worth reading — one that instructs, delights, enlightens, or amazes. That's the standard readers vote on.

No daily quota attached — the bar fills toward 50,000, and the book publishes whenever in November it's ready.

Prizes

Everyone who finishes wins. The best take titles.

Two tiers, on purpose. Finishing 50,000 words is the achievement the month is built around — so every finisher is a winner. Ranked prizes sit on top, decided by the readers — registered ConjureInk users who acquired the book in Episodica, one vote each — on one standard: is this a novel worth reading?

Every finisher gets: the finisher badge, a digital certificate, and a place on the finishers' shelf — your book, live in the Episodica store and readable by anyone, all December and beyond.
Category prize

Best Literary Novel

The book readers vote for on the strength of its sentences and its soul — character, voice, and meaning carried all the way to the last page.

Category prize

Best Romance

Two people, one irresistible pull. The love story readers couldn't put down — and couldn't stop rooting for.

Category prize

Best Science Fiction

A future, another world, a what-if taken seriously — the speculative novel that made readers see this world differently.

Category prize

Best Mystery

A question planted early and answered fairly. The puzzle readers raced to solve — and didn't, until the reveal earned it.

Category prize

Best Thriller

Stakes, speed, and a clock that won't stop. The novel that kept readers turning pages long past when they meant to stop.

Category prize

Best Historical Novel

Another era, fully inhabited — the research worn lightly and the past brought back to breathing life.

Grand prize

Top Conjured Novel 2026

One winner — the category winner with the most reader votes takes the crown: the defining conjured novel of the year. Category and grand prizes are awarded in ConjureInk credits and platform value, including featured placement for readers. (Cash prizes join the ladder only if a sponsor signs on — the credit ladder is the guaranteed base.)

The rules

The one-pager. All of it.

No fine print hiding anywhere else. This is the whole deal:

  1. You keep all rights to your work.

    First, because it matters most. Export your novel, publish it anywhere, sell it here or don't. Entering changes nothing about who owns it: you do.

  2. Deliver a 50,000-word novel any time in November 2026.

    Substantially created during the month — that's the challenge. There is no daily quota and no pace to keep: conjure it in a day or across all thirty. And the bar isn't the count, it's the book — a novel worth reading, one that instructs, delights, enlightens, or amazes.

  3. AI assistance is required, not merely allowed.

    That's the premise, stated up front. ConjureInk-native entries qualify by construction; imported entries attest to it in the “How AI Was Used in This Book” field when they publish.

  4. A Story becomes a book through the ePub — and entry lives in Publish ePub.

    Write the novel as a Story in ConjureInk, or import an EPUB or manuscript. Give the Story a cover image (Generate ePub stays disabled until a cover exists), generate the ePub, then open Publish ePub — that is the book-publishing action. The entry checkbox appears only in that panel, and entry is for novels only. You cover your own creation and import costs.

  5. Your price, your call — and a 50-credit listing fee at publish.

    In Publish ePub you set genre and subgenre, free preview chapters, descriptions, tags, and a price per chapter in tokens, with an optional bundle discount. You may charge for your book or give it away free — entering does not force free. Publishing carries a one-time listing fee of 50 credits. Entries are capped at about ten per account, so bulk spam stays out.

  6. Entering requires the statement field: “How AI Was Used in This Book.”

    Tick “Enter this book in National Novel Conjuring Month” in the Publish ePub panel and complete that field — about 200 words on how you made it: tools, steering, revision passes. With the box ticked and the field empty, the publish is refused — and a refused publish charges nothing.

  7. Original work, your rights to enter it.

    The work must be yours to enter — no infringing material, no one else's book with your name on it.

  8. Deadline: November 30, 2026, 11:59 PM Pacific.

    Your book must be published — ePub generated, Publish ePub completed, entry box ticked — by then. Voting opens the next morning.

Timeline

November to crown, in five beats

  • Early November
    The announcementClankerLit opens the doors and the conjuring begins. Sign up, start writing — your novel can land any day of the month, so use November however you like: a day, a week, or all of it.
  • All November
    The writing windowNovels underway, word counts climbing. Conjure in a day or across the whole month — the only deadline is the last one.
  • Nov 30 · 11:59 PM PT
    Entries closeBooks are in — published through Publish ePub with the entry box ticked and the “How AI Was Used in This Book” statement completed. Every 50,000-word finisher takes the badge, the certificate, and the shelf.
  • Dec 1–14
    The reader voteRegistered ConjureInk users who acquired a book in Episodica vote for it — one vote per book, per account. The vote decides the category winners and the Top Conjured Novel 2026. No judges, no shortlist.
  • Mid-December
    The countVotes are tallied and checked, and the category winners and honorable mentions are set.
  • Before year-end
    Winners announcedBest Literary Novel, Best Romance, Best Science Fiction, Best Mystery, Best Thriller, Best Historical Novel — and one of them is crowned Top Conjured Novel 2026.

Questions

Asked, answered

What does NNCM stand for?
NNCM is shorthand for National Novel Conjuring Month. The middle word is the point: conjuring — making a novel, bringing it into being with AI as the instrument. NNCM is its own event, with its own premise: AI assistance required, a finished novel delivered any day in November, and readers deciding the winners. An earlier November writing challenge, National Novel Writing Month, has since shut down; NNCM isn't a continuation of it — it's a different idea about what making a novel in November means now.
Isn't this cheating?
Cheating at what? There's no hidden rule being broken — the rule here is the opposite. Every entrant uses AI assistance, openly, and every entry explains how in the “How AI Was Used in This Book” statement it publishes with. The creative work — the premise, the direction, the taste, the thousand decisions that make a book this book — is the author's. This event exists because that work is real, and November is where it gets proven at novel length.
Do I keep the rights to my novel?
Yes — all of them. You can export your work, publish it anywhere else, sell it on ConjureInk or not at all. Entering the event grants no rights grab. It's yours.
What does it cost to enter?
Entering is part of publishing: when you publish your book through Publish ePub, a one-time listing fee of 50 credits applies — that's the cost of putting the book in the Episodica store, entered or not. Creating on ConjureInk uses the platform's credits for the AI work you choose to do. And if a publish is refused — say the entry box is ticked but the “How AI Was Used in This Book” field is empty — nothing is charged. There's a cap of about ten entries per account.
Where do I actually enter? Is there a book button or an entry form?
Neither — and that's deliberate. In ConjureInk a Story becomes a book when you generate an ePub from it, and Publish ePub is the book-publishing action. The entry controls live only in that panel: when you publish, you'll see the checkbox “Enter this book in National Novel Conjuring Month” and, with it, the required “How AI Was Used in This Book” field (about 200 words). Tick the box, complete the field, publish — the book goes live in the Episodica store, entered. If the box is ticked and the field is empty, the publish is refused and nothing is charged. Entry through this panel is for novels only.
Do I have to give my book away free to enter?
No. In Publish ePub you set a price per chapter in tokens, with an optional bundle discount for the whole book — or you set it free and give it away. Entering changes none of that; it's your price to set either way. Readers acquire the book in Episodica at whatever price you chose, and the ones who acquired it are the ones who vote.
I wrote (or want to write) on another platform. Can I still enter?
Yes. Import your EPUB or manuscript into ConjureInk as a Story, give the Story a cover image, generate the ePub, and publish it through Publish ePub like any other book — that's how it becomes readable in the Episodica store, where readers and voters find it. You cover your own import costs, and imported entries attest that AI assistance was part of the process in the “How AI Was Used in This Book” field.
What counts as "AI assistance"?
Working with an AI writing tool as part of creating the book — drafting, co-writing, restructuring, revising — with you directing it. There's no minimum percentage and no surveillance: ConjureInk-native work qualifies by construction, imports attest when they publish, and your “How AI Was Used in This Book” statement tells the story of how you worked.
How does judging work?
The readers decide — there is no judges panel. December 1–14, registered ConjureInk users who have acquired a book in Episodica can vote for it: one vote per book, per account. The books with the most votes win their categories, and the top vote-getter overall is crowned Top Conjured Novel 2026. Only readers who actually picked up the book get a say in it.
Can I enter more than one novel?
Yes — up to about ten per account. Each book goes through the same route: Story, cover, generated ePub, then Publish ePub with its own entry tick, its own “How AI Was Used in This Book” statement, and the one-time 50-credit listing fee that applies at each publish. Conjuring is fast, but readers still have to want to read each one.
What do winners actually get?
Every finisher: the badge, the certificate, the shelf. Category winners and the Top Conjured Novel 2026 receive ConjureInk credits and platform value, including featured placement in front of readers on Episodica, ConjureInk's storefront. Cash prizes are added only if a sponsor signs on — nothing here depends on that happening.

Get started

Your November, step by step

  • Create your free ConjureInk account
  • Write the novel as a Story — or import the EPUB or manuscript you're already conjuring
  • Work your way: drive every scene yourself, or draft fast and revise after
  • Hit 50,000 words and give the Story a cover image
  • Generate the ePub — that's what makes it a book
  • Open Publish ePub: genre and subgenre, free preview chapters, descriptions, tags, your price per chapter in tokens (or free — your call)
  • Tick “Enter this book in National Novel Conjuring Month,” complete “How AI Was Used in This Book,” and publish by November 30 — live in the Episodica store, entered

They said AI can't write novels. In November, we find out what a novelist with AI can do — 50,000 words at a time.

Start conjuring on ConjureInk Read the How-To Guide → Browse Episodica, the storefront