Terms & Conditions

Acceptance of Terms

Your use of National Novel Writing Month’s Young Writers Program website (“YWP website”) represents an understanding and acceptance of the following terms. If you do not agree with the following terms, you, your children, and/or your students should not use the YWP website.

The following terms may be updated occasionally, at National Novel Writing Month’s (“our”) discretion. National Novel Writing Month (“We”) will make reasonable effort to notify you of any substantive changes via email and obtain your consent. We suggest that you regularly review the terms to ensure your continued understanding and acceptance.

If you are under 18, you should review the following terms with a parent, guardian, or educator facilitating the Young Writers Program (“YWP”). If you are under 13, your parent, guardian, or educator must give you permission before you establish an account.

Authorized Users

The YWP website is intended for the following audiences:

  • Young writers under 18 years of age and/or participating with a registered K-12 educator
  • Adults facilitating the YWP in schools, libraries, or community spaces
  • Parents or guardians facilitating or reviewing the YWP

If you are not part of one of these audiences, you may not use the YWP website. If you are not part of one of these audiences and have established an account, it will be immediately deleted and your access will be blocked.

The YWP website does not allow search-indexing or public access to user profiles, novels, or forums.

Personal Information

The YWP website collects the following information upon registration:

  • Username
  • First name or educator name
  • Birthdate
  • Password
  • Parent or guardian email address (mandatory for under-13 users not participating with an educator; optional for others)
  • Personal email address (mandatory for 13 and older users not participating with an educator; optional for others)
  • School name (educators only)
  • Zip code (educators only)

You have the option to provide:

  • Avatar graphic
  • Non-identifying profile information (e.g., favorites and interests)
  • Novel information
  • Classroom information (educator only)
  • Classroom graphic (educator only)

The YWP website collects IP addresses and browser cookies. We use these only to help you interact with the site, not to gather any further personal information.

National Novel Writing Month will not share any of your information with third parties, unless it is necessary for safety or legal purposes.

We make every reasonable effort to comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (“COPPA”), and we collect and display information differently for young writers under 13 years of age.

View full Privacy Policy.

Account Security

National Novel Writing Month makes every reasonable effort to protect against the loss, misuse, or alteration of your account data. These include encryption of data in transit, regular software security updates, periodic risk assessments, and remediation of identified security vulnerabilities in a timely manner. Student data is only stored on our servers, which are hosted on Amazon Web Services (AWS) and feature all the latest security protocols. AWS has instituted a FERPA Compliance Program. This data is not shared with any other third party. Our tech team is fully in-house, including development and support.

However, please be aware that no data transmissions over the internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. Consequently, we cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit or otherwise provide to us and you do so at your own risk. If you create an account, you will be asked to select a password in order to access the YWP website. You are responsible for maintaining the strict confidentiality of your account password, and for any activity that occurs under your account credentials, whether or not authorized by you.

Please notify us of any unauthorized use of your account or any suspected breach of security by submitting a help request.

Emails

Establishing an account on the YWP website automatically subscribes you to National Novel Writing Month mailing lists. We use a third party for our mailing-list management, but your information is only accessible by National Novel Writing Month.

You may unsubscribe or update your email preferences at any time.

Marketing

National Novel Writing is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and offers no paid services.

We will occasionally offer opportunities to donate or purchase programmatic merchandise. These transactions are hosted on a store platform outside the YWP website.

We will not share any of your personal information with third parties for marketing purposes.

Intellectual Property

You will not knowingly share any content that has been created, copyrighted, and/or trademarked by another person or entity. We will immediately delete any content we determine to be plagiarized.

The educational materials on the YWP website created by National Novel Writing Month are under Creative Commons license. You are free to share and adapt them, with attribution, for noncommercial purposes. (View full Creative Commons terms.)

This license does not apply to user-created novels or any other user-created content.

National Novel Writing Month retains trademarks on the following:

  • “NaNoWriMo’s Young Writers Program”
  • “National Novel Writing Month”
  • “NaNoWriMo”
  • “Camp NaNoWriMo”
  • NaNoWriMo’s Young Writers Program logo and all derivations
  • National Novel Writing Month logo and all derivations
  • Camp NaNoWriMo logo and all derivations

Codes of Conduct

You will abide by our Codes of Conduct, including grounds for content, discipline, and account deletion.

User Novels

The YWP website allows you to create, host, and share your novel(s).

National Novel Writing Month claims no copyright on novels created, hosted, or shared on the YWP website, and will not be held liable for any content therein. We reserve the right to publish non-substantive excerpts in our marketing materials, but will make reasonable effort to seek permission before we do so.

We will make every reasonable effort to host your novel(s), but the YWP website is not a permanent storage solution. You will regularly back up your novel(s) outside the YWP website. We will not be held liable for accidental novel deletion.

User Content

The YWP website allows users 13 and older to display profile information and post in YWP forums.

National Novel Writing Month claims no copyright on user-created content, and will not be held liable for it. We reserve the right to publish user-created content in our marketing and editorial materials.

Classrooms

The YWP website allows educators to create online classrooms to facilitate the YWP.

By creating a classroom, you accept that:

  • You are 18 years or older, and you an authorized educator associated with an established educational institution; a parent or guardian creating a classroom for your child(ren); or an adult facilitating the program in some official capacity with an established organization, club, or group.
  • You will abide by the Parent Proxy Agreement.
  • You will act as an administrator and moderator for your students on the YWP website.

By joining a classroom, young writers accept that:

  • You are a young writer participating in the YWP with the adult who has created the classroom.
  • You grant the educator the right to view and edit your personal information, novel(s), and user-created content.
  • You will abide by any further conduct or content guidelines beyond the existing Codes of Conduct, as established by the educator.

National Novel Writing Month will immediately delete unauthorized classrooms. If NaNoWriMo discovers false educator accounts (for example, an account created by a person under 18), we will immediately delete any associated classrooms, demote the account, and consider temporary or permanent forum blocks and/or account deletion. 

Third-Party Links

The YWP website may contain links to content hosted on other websites. National Novel Writing Month will not be held liable for any third-party content.

General Limitation of Liability

National Novel Writing Month will not be held liable for any damages associated, directly or indirectly, with your use of the YWP website.

General Rights Reserved

National Novel Writing Month has made reasonable effort to account for common terms of use above, but we know this won’t cover everything. We reserve the right to take any and all action on your YWP website account, novel(s), and user-created content at our discretion.

Contact Us

If you have questions about these Terms & Conditions or any other concerns related to the YWP website, please submit a help request.

A PROGRAM OF NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING MONTH, A 501(C)(3) NONPROFIT THAT BELIEVES YOUR STORY MATTERS.