In this paper, by using the bifurcation method of dynamical systems, we derive the traveling wave solutions of the nonlinear equation UU τyy − U y U τy + U 2 U τ + 3U y = 0. Based on the relationship of the solutions between the Novikov equation and the nonlinear equation, we present the parametric representations of the smooth and nonsmooth soliton solutions for the Novikov equation with cubic nonlinearity. These solutions contain peaked soliton, smooth soliton, W-shaped soliton and periodic solutions. Our work extends some previous results.