FAQ #5: How Long Did It Take You to Write the Book?

In calendar time, 3 months and 1 week.

In total writing time, probably 4 weeks.

I started writing the book (granted I had an outline to work off given my MediaPost columns — more on that in FAQ #2) the week between Christmas and New Years 2009. I spent about 5 full days (8am-6pm) writing that week.

Then, for the next 2 months, I took off every Friday and a random day here and there to write. I also took off one full week in February. By “took off,” I mean turning on the out-of-office auto-responder and catching up on phone or email in the evenings.

Finally, in March, I took about 3 days out of a 7-day family vacation in Mexico to write.

My manuscript deadline was March 31st and I missed it by 8 minutes after a long day of reviewing everything and making a few last tweaks. Thankfully, McGraw-Hill didn’t give me a hard time about being “late.”

After April 1st, I had a bit of a break while the book went through the editing process. I received the first batch of copyedited manuscript on May 11th and had until May 28th to provide my feedback.

Then, I received the proofed pages on June 16th and turned around my comments by June 28th.

My final deliverable was the index which I received on July 8th and sent back on July 12th.

Now the book is off to the printers and should be rolling off the press any day now in time to hit stores on 8/27.

Note: this post is part of a series. For more, see the full list of FAQs.