How long does it take to write a book?

By Dennis Mellersh

There are no hard and fast rules or formulas that you can use in figuring out how much time it takes to write a book.

Rather, time requirements vary considerably.

One writer of mystery novels, Georges Simenon, for example, wrote his detective novels in three weeks, whereas some novelists may take years to complete their manuscripts. Similarly, a well-researched biography or history can often take years to research and write.

The reason that “time-to-write” is difficult to pin down precisely is because, in terms of time requirements, writing a book is governed more by personal choice variables than by external time-driven pre-established criteria.

Here are six basic considerations on variables (and there are many more) that can influence book-writing time requirements:

• The type of book you are considering writing
• How much experience you have in writing
• The anticipated length or word-count of your proposed book
• The amount of research required for your book
• The amount of time you can devote each day to writing you book
• Will it be an E-book only, or a traditionally printed paper-based book?

Type of book
The first thing you should do is determine whether you want to write a non-fiction book, or a book of fiction, such as a novel.

A non-fiction book, such as a how-to guide will require considerable research unless you are planning a book on a topic in which you already have a lot of experience and knowedge.

A novel on the other hand, will primarily be a product of your imagination. The exception is if you want to write a ``period`` piece such as a western, or a you want to write about a particular historical period. In that case you will need to do research; otherwise your writing will lack authority, authenticity, and credibility.

Writing experience level
If you have some experience in writing, from your job requirements, for example, it will take you less time to write your book, than it would if you have to learn the craft of writing as you progress with your book project.

The market you are aiming for will also be a factor as there is a learning curve in gaining experience in writing for very young children, teenage children, young adults, and adults. This is true for both fiction and non-fiction.

Length of your proposed book
Generally the average novel length, for example, is considered to be in the range of 100,000 to 175,000 words. On the basis of 250 words per page (double spacing) on a word-processing program, this would amount to 400 to 700 pages of manuscript.
  
For a non-fiction book you might want to look at this type of book in your local library or bookstore to get an idea of book lengths. Remember that the number of pages in a published book will be fewer as compared with your manuscript because line spacing is generally closer in the published version. This also applies to the published version of novels.

The reason the proposed length is important is simply that generally speaking, the longer the length of your planned book, the longer it will take to write.

Amount of research required
The amount of research you may need to do for your book can vary considerably. If you are an expert on a given topic, such as a long-time hobby, you will already have the knowledge to write a non-fiction book on the topic, and will only need to refresh yourself on the latest information available that you will need to include in your book.

Obviously, the reverse is true if you have an interest in writing a book on a topic on which you have little knowledge.  Your interest in the topic will make your research more enjoyable but you will still need to put in the time to gain enough solid information to be knowledgeable enough to write a book about your topic of interest.

How much time can you spend each day?
In order to make progress in writing your book, you should set aside enough time each day to work effectively on your manuscript. This time segment should be long enough to “settle-in” each day to the writing task at hand.

The amount of time you plan should be realistic. If you are busy with a family and a day-job, and then set aside too much time, you are likely to find it not do-able and then give up out of frustration.

The key with successful writing is to do some each day. It’s not something that you can skip for three days, for example, with the thought of doing four times as much work on the fourth day to make up for the three days you missed. Better to set aside say an hour each weekday for writing with 1 ½ or two hours on Saturday and Sunday.

In writing a book, a steady amount of research and/or writing each day will eventually add up to a completed manuscript sooner than you might think.

E-Book or traditional paper-based printed book?
With the relatively recent advent of e-books, and particularly with the arrival of e-book self-publishing on interfaces such as Amazon.com, book lengths, and therefore the time required to write, themhave been shortened.

With e-books, and this is primarily because of the generally lower price of self-published e-books, a “book” can be much shorter than a paper-based printed book. People will still consider a 30-page non-fiction e-book at a low price as a book, whereas a printed version of the same thing would be regarded more likely as a “report.”