Tao Wong
patreon
Business Post: Why do books take so long??
🕑 Added 2025-05-16 21:00:07 +0000 UTCThis was previously posted to bsky - you can read the post here and comments.
Why do books take so long to arrive?
I just finished the ATL sequel (Celestial Cataclysms) series' first book, and it's 249k words.
I started it on Aug 2, 2024. That's 9.5 months.
I was writing other work till early this year, it's true but also cogitating time.
Next it goes to the dev editor. That's 2 months.
Once it returns, I have to sort their comments, edit the whole book. At best 1 month, more likely 2.
Edits done, it goes to a copy & line editor. That'll be a month to edit.
I'll need a few weeks to go over their notes.
Then proofreader, who might take another month.
Then formatting.
At this point, we're in Feb 2026. If we can get this done faster, we would; but we need to plan for slippage; so I'm adding weeks to all this. If we're lucky, our editors/proofers/etc. have slots earlier if we go faster. If not, we use what we booked. After that, it goes to the narrator.
By the time the narrator is finished, we're now looking at (probably) middle of next year for a release unless we don't want to do a simultaneous release for audio & e-book.
Earliest? March 2026 for e-book.
Latest, May 2026.
So, yeah, near 2 years from start of writing to publishing.
Comments
Andre A
All good things take time.
