| Since I offer visitors to my website the prospect | | | | need a book in 3 months, or even 6, is the fact |
| of a book in 3-6 months, I thought I should | | | | that they have businesses to run, or day jobs, |
| address the questions of when, whether, and how | | | | which mean they can't devote long hours to |
| it's possible to produce a full-length book so | | | | writing. Of course, that's also one reason to hire a |
| quickly. | | | | ghostwriter, but as long as you want it to be |
| At the recent BACN Publishing Panel, Dr. Bette | | | | your book, you have to put time in on it. So you |
| Daoust said that it takes her 32 hours to write a | | | | might take a couple of weeks off to fill in the |
| book. You could hear the gasps of astonishment | | | | gaps in your research and to do interviews, then |
| from the audience. She quickly qualified the | | | | hand your source material to the writer. |
| statement by pointing out three things: | | | | After that, you can concentrate on your work |
| | | | for the next month while s/he writes the first |
| 1. That time is only for writing, not for research | | | | draft. Then you'll need at least another week or |
| or editing. The research (gathering of relevant | | | | two off in order to make revisions, unless you |
| articles) may take months, not counting the years | | | | don?t require sleep. And so on through as many |
| of experience that create the author's expertise. | | | | revisions as the book requires (at least one |
| 2. It takes 32 hours to write the first draft. Few | | | | more). |
| writers actually want their first drafts published. | | | | So that's at least two months. Once you think of |
| 3. As the author of 150 books, Dr. Daoust is a | | | | the book as "finished," you'll need to give the |
| practiced writer; first-time authors can expect to | | | | manuscript, preferably in hard copy, to someone |
| spend three times that on their first draft, even if | | | | who's never seen it before. This can be a |
| they have all their ducks in a row. | | | | professional proofreader, or just a friend with an |
| When I was a young, energetic graduate student, | | | | eagle eye and a handy red pen. You'll be amazed |
| I researched and wrote a 300,000 word | | | | at how many typos and other small errors you, |
| quasi-historical fantasy adventure novel during our | | | | your writer, and the spelling checker missed. |
| four-month summer break. That's several times | | | | Once you fix those last problems (and the |
| as long as any business book. (In fact, 300,000 | | | | ghostwriter, or even your assistant, can on that |
| words is really too long to be one novel; I decided | | | | part for you), you can turn the book over to the |
| a few years later, when I got nowhere with | | | | publisher, designer,or book packager. If you're |
| publishers, to divide it into two books and add a | | | | self-publishing, either via Print on Demand or |
| couple of chapters to the shorter section, but | | | | through a more traditional printer, you need to |
| haven't gotten around to it yet.) | | | | have someone do the layout and typesetting. It's |
| Even though I'm not young and energetic | | | | best to hire someone who is experienced with |
| anymore, generating reams of text is not a | | | | book design-both the principles and the |
| problem-as long as I know in advance what I | | | | software-rather than an all-purpose graphic |
| want to say. | | | | designer. If you're working with a traditional |
| Start by Proposing | | | | publisher, they'll take care of this part for you. (I |
| That's where the research comes in. Whether | | | | can recommend a book designer, if you're looking |
| you're writing your own book or someone else's, | | | | for one.) |
| you have to gather a lot of source material | | | | A Real-Life Example |
| before starting to write. You also have to go | | | | It took me 60 hours to do the first draft of a |
| through the proposal process, to find out who the | | | | client's book, using her blog posts as raw material; |
| book's intended market is, what the author's goal | | | | that would be just about exactly a month for me |
| for the book is, which books are comparable, etc | | | | if I were working on it "full time." But I wasn't |
| and so on. I advise even authors who know from | | | | working on it full time, and neither was she. She |
| the beginning that they're going to self-publish to | | | | actually started writing the blog in August of 2005 |
| write book proposals, because by the time you've | | | | and concluding in October of 2006. Writing the |
| done all that preparation, actually writing the book | | | | blog posts took her roughly 1-2 hours apiece. |
| is almost an afterthought. | | | | I started collecting and organizing the blog posts |
| It can take longer to create a good proposal, with | | | | at the end of 2005 and finished the first draft in |
| its marketing plan, hook, handle, outline, and | | | | June of 2007. A lot of what both of us did during |
| sample chapters, than it does to write the rest of | | | | that process was eliminate duplication. She'd made |
| the book. Again, it depends on how well-prepared | | | | several points in more than one blog post, and we |
| you are. Patricia Fry, author of How to Write a | | | | needed to consolidate all that material. If she'd |
| Successful Book Proposal in 8 Days or Less, | | | | written all of them at once, it would have been |
| explains the value of book proposals on WBJB | | | | easier for her to remember what she?d already |
| Radio. | | | | covered-but impossible for her to do any work |
| Source Material | | | | for her clients. |
| Part of preparing to write-and thus being able to | | | | She then put in 6 hours a day reviewing and |
| write quickly-is getting your source material | | | | revising that first draft, and sent it back to me on |
| together. You might collect relevant magazine | | | | July 8th, 2007. It took only until July 15th (less |
| articles and web pages over the course of a few | | | | than 12 hours of actual billed time) for me to read |
| months. Make sure you have them where you | | | | over the second draft, make corrections, and |
| can get to them, and that you go over them to | | | | send back the third draft. |
| decide where you want to include them. You | | | | Then the publisher, who also acted as |
| should also collect any short articles you've | | | | proofreader, asked for a number of changes in |
| published that you want to include or expand on. | | | | the details, which added a few more weeks to |
| And if you have illustrations or figures of any kind | | | | the process. |
| already picked out, you'll need to get those | | | | The Bottom Line |
| together, as well. | | | | My total time on this project, including some |
| If you have recordings of yourself giving | | | | research, was 78 hours. My client's time was |
| presentations and leading workshops, get them | | | | probably double that, or more. (Since she wasn't |
| transcribed. If you don't have them, start making | | | | billing it out, she didn't track it.) Spread over the |
| them. They'll save you from reinventing the | | | | course of 18 months, it was a manageable task |
| wheel. You can get a digital recorder for less than | | | | and a manageable expense. The book, at 110,000 |
| $100; for a little more, you can get one that | | | | words, is on the longer side; you can get away |
| comes bundled with voice-to-text software. (This | | | | with half that for a business book, if you can say |
| technology is much better than it used to be, but | | | | what you need to say. |
| you'll still need a human to go over and correct it.) | | | | If we hadn't taken breaks in between working on |
| If you want, you can produce your entire first | | | | the book, we might have spent fewer total hours |
| draft by talking rather than writing. | | | | on it due to the momentum of staying immersed |
| If you're working with a ghostwriter, s/he will | | | | in the material. |
| probably record interviews with you, as well as | | | | Nevertheless, 78 hours is a fairly quick job. My |
| making use of any recordings or transcriptions | | | | client saved herself money by investing so much |
| you already have. It can be useful to hear the | | | | time on the project herself. A typical ghostwriting |
| original audio as well as having the text to work | | | | project, which involves quite a lot of interviewing |
| with, but you'll almost certainly lose time and | | | | and research time as well as the writing and |
| money if you ask your ghostwriter to do the | | | | revising, can easily take 200 hours. Any collection |
| transcription. There are specialized services that | | | | of source material is going to need consolidating. |
| will do it faster and cheaper if you don't want to | | | | Writing someone else's book can be more |
| go the software route. | | | | time-consuming than writing your own, and |
| If, instead of planning for a few years to write | | | | sometimes revising a client's first draft also takes |
| before you sit down at your keyboard, you get | | | | longer than just writing it yourself. |
| struck by a mental lightning bolt one day and | | | | But if I do the math on 200 hours, that's still only |
| conclude that you need a book now, you can | | | | 4 months, beginning to end, if I work on that |
| condense your research and preparation period. It | | | | book to the exclusion of everything else. And my |
| may mean some long days at the library and on | | | | client might need one week off each of those |
| the Internet, not to mention in front of the | | | | months to devote to the book, and another |
| microphone, either presenting to an audience or | | | | couple of weeks after my job is done to handle |
| getting interviewed by a writer, but you should be | | | | issues of publishing and printing. |
| able to manage the research inside a month if | | | | Marketing time, of course, is something else |
| you can take time off from your regular business | | | | entirely. But as the person whose name is on the |
| to do so. | | | | book, you're the one who has to do most of the |
| Time Off | | | | marketing. |
| One reason many authors decide they really don't | | | | |