How do they choose which novels get a cover?

My theory is this;

Each staff member has a pet monkey. They get these monkeys to sit about, tapping away at type-writers, until eventually one of them manages to type out a WriMo's username. Once they have 2,000 of these, they write them all out on pieces of paper with the contact info for the Office of Letters and Light on the back.

Once this is done, 500 of those usernames are put into coffee packets and sent around the globe. Another 500 are put into bottles and thrown into the ocean. 500 more are mailed to random addresses. And the last 500 are tied to helium balloons and set free into the atmosphere.

When an innocent person comes across a username hidden in their coffee packets, or tied to a deflated balloon, or washed up on their private beach, or sitting in their mailbox, they can choose to contact the OLL or not. Most of them won't bother. Some of them can't. But the first 30 or so people who DO choose to contact the staff will tell them the usernames they got, and voilå! That user gets a cover. Simple as can be.

... Or they just pick the coolest-sounding synopses they find. Either one.

What's your theory?

My World History teachers team on chickens and ostriches raid the site and pick out their first 30 victims and to help with their new deaths (the victims'), they give them a cover.

Time traveling ghosts appear to them and tell them which covers will most benefit the future. I'm personally hoping that on Halloween night, while they sit alone illuminated only by the light of their laptops, Edgar Allen Poe's ghost will whisper into their ears that I have a great, next-best-selling novel worthy of coverdom.

Okay, fine. I really just want Edgar Allen Poe's ghost to whisper to ANYONE. Or knock on their door. That would be cool.

Four words: Chris Baty. Wombats. Macrame.

I just figured it had something to do with a realllllllly big dartboard
and really tiny darts!

It's all done in an internal lottery with girls in skimpy 20s showgirl outfits getting user names out of a barrel.

No no no ~ you wanna know how?

First everyone does jello shots then they take sharpies and write user names all over chris and other office monkeys
and then everyone gets bottles of mustard and play twister while squirting mustard all over....

any user names they can still read after an hour get written on paper and they pull 30 out of Chris' underwear drawer


Ya think?

Ok maybe not....

But drunk twister with mustard and sharpies and CHris B's CLEAN undies.... (on him please no nakedness needed)

That just sounds like fun

So on a serious note is there anything you can do to make yourself more eligible for this?

Hey, only 30 novels get a cover? I read that each winner who has succeeded to finish his novel on time, gets a special code and an oppportunity to recieve his manuscript in a form of a noormal book :D if only 30 lucky writers will get a book..I don't know..

In the dead of night, an army of ninja leprechauns will crawl from the sewers and sneak into the houses of the many NaNo writers - at least the houses not placed in extreme locations. And it has to be leprechauns. They're the only ones that can pass themselves off as confused, lost midgets if they get caught.

But that's besides the point, as they are ninjas and never get caught. They will come to you when you are asleep and put a golden flower under your pillow. Normally nothing will happen- the flower will die, get crushed, be ground into your hair, and you'll go to work/school in the morning only to look quite silly when someone points out you have a mutilated plant poking out of your head.

But if you're REALLY lucky, the golden flower will transform into an angry badger by the first light of dawn. Despite the high possibility that you will get mauled, you should be happy about this. Because the all-knowing queen of leprechauns will compensate for your numerous medical bills by giving you a novel cover. You know, to distract you from any legal actions you may take against the mythological creatures.

It's predestined.

Deep under the OLL is a secret vault. Inside the vault is a massive tome, chained securely to the floor, filled with the names of every NaNo participant who will ever get a cover.

When the clock strikes midnight on Halloween, the door opens. It gives them just enough time to rush in, copy down the next 30 names, and then rush out again before the door slams shut.

Any changes in staff involve people who were a little too slow.

They use Voodoo Dolls.
They sit them on top of computers and when the doll comes to life they know it has chosen someone. They simply whisper instructions into the ears of the dolls while the real person sleeps.
The real person will then get online and send a message with the secret password in it not knowing why they are typing it. When they get the message with the correct words they know who's novel to make a cover for.
Also now they have one more voodoo doll to compel the person to return every year after.

i'm pretty sure lostshadows is 100% correct.

No, no no no no no.

It's the llamas. Duh.

I'm pretty sure they use a broken sundial and a divining rod.

The wall gnomes (who are constantly stealing and returning all of those things you could not find and now can) can transcend dimensions if they so chose. These gnomes fly with at the speed of light and with the grace of drunk rhinoceros to the all knowing cloud demons of the netherworld. These demons know the future and tell the gnomes which users MUST get covers for the future to continue. The gnomes fly back and return to our demension so they may whisper the usernames in the staffs ears as the humans dream of sugarplums......

I'm fairly certain blindfolds and twister spinners are involved in the process.

I think Professor Marvel might play a hand...

Mr Ian Woon sits in top-secret NaNoWriMo headquarters with a circle of slips of paper. The papers have every nanowrimo.org username written on them. He places the Travelling Shovel of Death in the middle of the circle and plays a game of spin the bottle. The first thirty names the Shovel points to get a cover.

nah, you guys are all wrong. It's the gaffel elves that are behind it.