For book/ebook authors, publishers, & self-publishers

How long does it take to write a book?

I’ve been wondering how long it really takes for an author
to write a book. I’m not talking about a first draft, I’m talking about the
point where an author says “done!” and then sends it off to the publisher or
agent. For me, it usually takes about six months to write a draft worthy of
revision. But to consider the manuscript completed it takes a lot longer. Since
all of my books have been through the ringer with agents, editors, and
publishers and I’ve used their advice and my continuing literary improvement to
keep revising and strengthening both plot and grammar, the maturation process
for each book has taken a long time. Here are the time frames it took to
consider each of my novels complete and off-to-the-publisher-worthy. I have
many more books to come.

TIM MADISON GALACTIC WARRIOR 1996-2003…7 years
http://www.amazon.com/Madison-Galactic-Warrior-Neil-Ostroff/dp/0595...

INSECTLAND 1997-2011… 14 years

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005P81J48

FROSTPROOF 1998-2009… 11 years
http://www.amazon.com/FROSTPROOF-N-D-Ostroff/dp/1450251439/ref%3Dsr...

PULP 1999-2010… 11 years
http://www.amazon.com/PULP-novella-N-D-Ostroff/dp/1462001750/ref=sr...

DEGENERATES 2000-2009… 9 years
http://www.amazon.com/Degenerates-N-D-Ostroff/dp/1440173028/ref%3Ds...

AFTER. 2001-2011… 10 years
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0050Q8D8U

DROP OUT 2007-2011…4 years

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005FX0K7U

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Comment by John Kremer on October 12, 2011 at 5:36pm: Well, it took you 66 years to write 7 books, but all those years are duplicated since you were obviously working on more than one book at a time. It took you, on average, 9 years to write a book. But of those 66 years, about 50 had 2 to 5 books being written. If you consider that, it took about 1.5 to 2.0 years per book to complete to your satisfaction.