How long does it take to publish a book? The answer you probably don’t want to hear is that it depends. Many factors play into this element of publishing, some are in your control and some aren’t.
Let’s look first at ebooks because this is the easiest and quickest road to getting a book published.
Ebook Time Line
Ebooks take considerably less time to publish than prints books do. Formatting the interior of an ebook requires fewer steps than a print book, thus less time to create. Additionally, only the front cover is required for ebooks. Again, less time to create.
You will still want to have your book professionally edited, and whether for ebook or print, this takes the longest time. If your book is 10,000 words or less, it’s not unreasonable for an editor to complete that in a week. Plan on a month or more if your book is over 50,000.
Keep in mind that editors have a queue of work. They can’t always start on your book the very next day you hire them. Always ask how soon they can start on your project when you are interviewing potential editors. The same applies to those you hire to format your interior and create your cover.
Depending on the length of your book, it could take a few weeks to a few months to get your ebook published.
Traditional Publishing Time Line
With a traditional publisher, the standard time it takes to publish a book is 18-24 months. This accounts for contract negotiation, editing your manuscript, layout, cover design, proofreading, and printing, all of which impact the time it takes to get your book to the bookshelf.
If your book requires an illustrator, count on several weeks or months for this, though with the AI technology of today, that can vary tremendously.
All of these same elements, except for contract negotiation and printing, apply to the time it takes to publish a print book whether indie or self-published.
Self-Publishing Time Line
Allow me to define self-publishing because today it is often used synonymously with independent publishing.
Self publishing: you hire and pay upfront a company to create your book cover and interior book file. There are many hybrid companies out there these days, and they all offer a variety of services from editing to layout to uploading to KDP.
The company manages all aspects of book production, much like a traditional publisher, with the main difference being you pay them upfront. You are handing off the management and details and a large degree of the control to the company.
With independent publishing, you, the author, manage and control everything. I suppose this is splitting hairs with this definition, but I’m an editor, we split hairs a lot. [To whom it may concern, perhaps a smiley face emoji here]
That said, let’s look at the time lines.
Whenever you hire out a task, you are at the mercy of their time frame and their workload. You can state when you want to publish your book, but they will let you know if they can meet that time frame or not. It’s your choice to seek a different company.
BookBaby.com states that authors can have their book published within weeks of completing their manuscript. Generally, the time line is 3 to 6 months with self-publishers, which to split hairs, fits into the “within weeks” statement because it’s not years like it is with traditional publishers. The time will vary depending on the services you have them complete—editing, design, print—and the length of your book.
Independent Publishing Time Line
With independent publishing, where you manage and do most if not all the book production yourself, one to two weeks is not an unreasonable amount of time to go from finished manuscript (by finished I mean having been professionally edited) to published book.
Most of the indie authors I work with hire out each step. They hire a professional editor, which depending on book length can take a week for a short book (10,000 words or less) or more than a month for longer books. They hire out the interior and cover design as well, a couple of weeks to a couple months depending on the complexity of the book (straightforward text or lots of graphics).
You can, as an indie author, circumvent some of the time by having a book cover designer working on the cover while you are still writing or the editor is editing.
Printing your book doesn’t play into self/indie publishing. Your book can be up on that virtual Amazon bookshelf and is not printed until someone orders the book. Some self-publishers handle printing the same way traditional publishers do, by printing a certain quantity (that you pay for upfront) and selling it through third-party distributors.
As you can see, your time availability to do the work and that of those you hire will impact how long it takes to get a print or ebook published.
Conclusion
Now that you have a better understanding of all the pieces, you can formulate better questions to ask as you seek an editor, interior formatter, cover designer, or a self-publishing company that will do the work for you.
If you are still in the process of writing, decide when you want it live on Amazon (or any other book site). Add up the weeks/months most likely required to complete the steps outlined above (I’d pad it by a month) and work backwards from your desired pub date. This will show you two things: 1) when you need to have your manuscript ready for editing, and 2) whether your desired publication date is realistic.
I hope this has given you the guidance you need to design the time line you desire for your book.
Happy writing and publishing!
About the Author
Debra L. Butterfield is the author of eleven books that include Self-editing & Publishing Tips for the Indie Author. She is a freelance author and editor, former editorial director of CrossRiver Media Group, and a former copywriter for Focus on the Family. She blogs about writing at TheMotivationalEditor.com
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