Novelists, Inc. (NINC) — The Professional Organization for Career Novelists
Founded in 1989, NINC is the only organization specifically for multi-published novelists across all genres and publication models. Its merit-based membership, annual conference, and professional-level resources make it a career milestone for serious fiction authors.
Community Type: Professional Membership Organization + Annual Conference
Members / Size: 1,000+ members (traditionally published, indie, and hybrid novelists)
Platform: ninc.com (members-only digital resources, annual conference in-person)
Cost: $95/year membership. Conference registration separate (check ninc.com for current pricing).
Best For: Established fiction authors with at least two published novels, each earning $3,000+ in a 12-month period. NINC is a merit-based organization — membership requires meeting qualifying criteria.
Official Link: https://ninc.com
What Is NINC?
Novelists, Inc. — NINC — was founded in 1989, making it one of the oldest professional organizations in fiction publishing. Its founding premise has not changed in thirty-five years: there should be an organization specifically for career novelists — authors who make writing fiction their professional vocation, whether through traditional publishing, self-publishing, or hybrid approaches.
NINC is deliberately not for aspiring authors or beginners. It is a merit-based professional organization with specific membership qualifications, and that selectivity is both its strength and its most important characteristic. When you join NINC, every member in the room has published multiple novels and earned meaningful income from that writing. The conversations are different when the entire community shares a professional baseline.
Today, NINC has over 1,000 members from around the world, spanning every genre of popular fiction — romance, mystery, thriller, fantasy, science fiction, historical fiction, and more. Members include traditionally published novelists with major houses, indie-published authors building six and seven-figure careers, and hybrid authors who navigate both worlds.
Membership Requirements and Dues
NINC's membership qualifications are specific and intentionally selective. To qualify for membership, an author must have published at least two novels, with each novel earning a minimum of $3,000 in a single 12-month period. Both traditionally published and self-published novels count — what matters is the demonstrated track record of earning income from fiction.
Annual dues are $95 — a modest investment relative to the membership's value. NINC also maintains a Diversity Fund to cover dues for members who would otherwise be unable to renew, ensuring financial barriers do not prevent qualified authors from participating.
For authors who are approaching but have not yet met the qualifying criteria, NINC is a visible career milestone to work toward — a concrete, measurable definition of what it means to be a professional novelist.
Member Benefits
The Annual Conference
NINC's annual conference is the organization's flagship event and, by most accounts, the highest-value conference in fiction publishing. Unlike general writer conferences that serve everyone from first-time writers to New York Times bestsellers, NINC's conference is exclusively for its qualified members and approved industry guests.
This exclusivity creates a fundamentally different conference dynamic. Conversations between members — in sessions, at dinners, in hallways — happen at a professional level that is impossible to replicate in open conferences where attendees range from complete beginners to seasoned professionals. The 2025 conference was held at Tradewinds Island Grand Resort in St. Pete Beach, Florida.
Nink — The Monthly Newsletter
NINC's monthly newsletter, Nink, publishes original articles specifically commissioned for professional novelists. Topics include author business management, marketing strategy, publishing industry analysis, and career perspective. This is not a newsletter of recycled blog content — it is original professional-level writing for an audience of working novelists.
Members-Only Discussion Groups
NINC maintains private discussion groups for frank conversations between members. These forums allow qualified novelists to discuss contract terms, platform changes, agent behavior, publisher practices, and business strategy with candor that is not possible in public forums. The quality of the conversation is directly related to the quality of the membership.
Legal Fund
NINC maintains a Legal Fund that assists members who need legal counsel on publishing-related legal problems. For authors dealing with contract disputes, rights reversion issues, or other legal matters related to their work, having access to legal resources at reduced cost is a meaningful benefit.
Service Provider Discounts
Members receive discounts from a range of vetted professional services including BookFunnel, Publisher's Weekly, IngramSpark, BookVault, Reedsy, Plottr, Book Brush, and others. These discounts can offset the cost of annual dues for active authors.
NINC's Role in Advocacy
NINC is a member of the Authors Coalition of America — a coalition of more than 20 American organizations representing over 85,000 authors, artists, and photographers. Through this coalition, NINC contributes to advocacy on copyright issues, AI training data compensation, and other policy matters affecting professional authors.
NINC's position statements on AI, publishing practices, and author rights carry weight precisely because the organization represents qualified working novelists rather than aspiring writers. When NINC speaks, it speaks with the authority of a membership that has demonstrated it is actively making a living from fiction writing.
Is NINC Right for You?
NINC is not for every author — and it is not meant to be. It is specifically designed for career novelists who have demonstrated income from their fiction writing. If you meet the qualifying criteria, NINC offers community, education, advocacy, and professional development at a level that general author communities cannot match.
Best for: Career fiction novelists with two or more qualifying novels
Best for: Authors who want peer community at a professional level
Best for: Hybrid authors navigating both traditional and indie publishing
Not for: Authors who have not yet met the qualifying criteria — focus on building your catalog and income first
Goal-oriented: If you haven't qualified yet, NINC is a concrete milestone to aim toward
How ScribeCount Connects to This Community
NINC members are professional novelists who track the business of their fiction careers with rigor. ScribeCount is built for exactly this kind of author — providing the unified analytics infrastructure to track royalties across platforms, measure marketing ROI, and understand the financial health of a multi-title fiction career. NINC's culture of data-driven, business-minded authorship aligns perfectly with ScribeCount's Author OS. For authors who qualify for NINC membership, ScribeCount is the tool that makes the data conversations NINC values possible.
Final Thoughts
NINC is a career milestone and a community for the most serious working novelists in the indie and traditional publishing world. The $95 annual membership is among the best investments a qualifying author can make — the conference alone is worth many times the dues, and the member discussion forums provide access to frank professional-level conversations that are available nowhere else. If you meet the qualifying criteria, join. If you don't yet, set it as a goal.
- Randall