How long does it take to write a book?

It depends on how long you want your book to be. If its a long book, it will probably take a long time. If its a short book, it won't take as long. If you do think your going to write a book it takes about 3 months to a year.  more

There are people that start with the idea of what they want to write and are pretty disciplined on a regular basis pursuing that objective of creating their manuscript for their book. We have people that have written and assembled their manuscript in several months. We also have people who have worked on a book for ten years depending on their work ethic and commitment, depending on the subject of the book and ancillary materials that go with it.</p><p>So, I don&#39;t know that there is a clear, crisp answer. It&#39;s really like every book is a work of art and it&#39;s different from every other book out there. There maybe common themes, but the content of the book is different based on the writer. So, for some people it has taken a couple of months, for many people it has taken ten years and for some people after they start; the book never gets done.  more

The amount of time it will take you to write your book depends, broadly, on two things: • How clear you are on what you want to write about. • How much research you have to do, as opposed to writing about something you already know about in great detail. Research takes a long time. The late W Richard Stevens (my hero) wrote TCP/IP Illustrated (Volume 1, The Protocols). This has which has about 600 pages. Stevens said it took him about an hour per page, so 600 pages would take about 75 8-hour days, or 15 normal working weeks. When I wrote Practical TCP/IP which has about 800 pages, it took about 3 hours per page, giving a total of about 300 8-hour days, or 60 weeks.

"Angela's Ashes really took 30 years to write," said author Frank McCourt. In the late 1990s, that book was on bestseller lists for more than two years, sold more than 2.3 million copies, went to more than 64 printings. On the other hand, Michael Angelo Avallone wrote a complete novel in 36 hours. Once, while dining in a New York restaurant, he wrote a 1,500-word short story in 20 minutes. All told, he wrote some 1,000 works, including 36 mysteries. One of the authors of books for the Frommer Travel Guides says it takes her three months to write one of those books. A writer of a young adult novel of 32 chapters told me she wrote it in two weeks. Barbara Shafferman, author of the highly-rated New Age thriller, President's Astrologer, took a year and a half to write it. How long it will take you to write a book depends partly on how MUCH you write a day. "My goal is 2,000 words a day"---about 8 pages, says Arthur Golden, author of Memoirs of a Geisha. Gustav Flaubert wrote Madam Bovary ...  more

It takes me about 3 to 4 months to write a first draft. Then there's lots of editing, of course. The entire process from starting to write the book, to seeing it in print takes about two years.  more

Authors often get asked this question. There is, of course, no straightforward universal answer; so much depends on the book, on the author concerned, and also on many other circumstances. Some books are generated slowly, some quickly, a few at immense speed. Some may even be the work of very many years, or even a lifetime. The question of the actual time taken over writing is one that always interests readers.  more