Readers, how long do you think it takes your favorite authors to write each book? Days? Months? Years? Let’s find out what some of our InspyRomance authors do. By the way, if you haven’t read these featured books, be sure to click on the book cover images to be taken directly to Amazon where you can buy the books or leave a review.
One randomly selected commenter will be gifted a free ebook copy of Call You Home, the very last novel in my Savannah Sweethearts series. How long do you think it took me to write that novel? I’ll tell you at the end of this blog post.
“This one took me about 8-10 months to write, mostly because I was arguing with God for some time about the content. Obviously, I lost the argument. I can write a book of this length (~40K) in 6 weeks, usually.” – Ginger Solomon, author of Her First Love
“Two years because of research, interviews, and how heartbreaking the subject. I wrote a novella in between.” – Janet W. Ferguson, author of The Art of Rivers
“My fastest is 30 days from first idea to publish-ready book – that was my 35k novella A Lesson in Love, which was in the Love Blossoms boxed set. My longest – that would be The Real Thing, the final book in the the series. I’ve started working on that every winter since then, and it’s STILL not finished. It does have a LOT of dud first chapters. Normally, at least 2 months and sometimes longer. Recently published books were co-authored – Alexa did the first draft, I’m taking them from there to publish-ready.” – Autumn Macarthur, author of A Lesson in Love
“My latest release took about 6 weeks from start to publish. The actual writing time was 4 weeks I think (keep in mind, this was while my kids were still in school, so I had a good chunk of time each day to write). It’s about 41k words long. It was also ‘easier’ to write since it’s book 4 of a 5 book series, so I knew the characters fairly well. Although I did have a hard time editing because of a suggestion my critique partner made (which was a good one and necessary), but it made me have to switch scenes around and pull out my hair. LOL. FYI, I have 2 critique partners whom I trade chapters with on a regular basis, so I edit as I go. And I had my proofreader lined up, so I had a deadline to meet. Plus, the fact that my kids were getting out of school soon gave me the motivation to finish.” – Liwen Ho, author of At First Spark
“I released a novel in April, What Makes a Home, that took the better part of a year to complete. I kept getting stuck until I wrote the epilogue first and was able to visualize the rest of how it should play out to get there. But last year’s Christmas novella only took 2 1/2 weeks! I heard God speak, asking me to fast from reading while I wrote it and He would give it to me faster and better than anything I’d written to that point. He totally did!” – Jaycee Weaver, author of What Makes a Home
There you have it, readers! Samples of the writing processes of some of our illustrious InspyRomance authors. What do you think? Does knowing how long or short a time it took them to write change the way you feel when you read their books or when you interact with them online?
As for me, my latest novel, Call You Home, has taken me a few years to complete, from draft to polished book. From the time I wrote Know You More, the first book in the Savannah Sweethearts series, back in 2014-2015, I knew that chef and restaurateur Piper Peyton was going to get her own book. Unfortunately she had to wait ten Savannah Sweethearts years, or four real life years, before her story is published.
I outlined Call You Home in 2016, wrote the draft entirely by pen on paper in 2016-2017, took a hiatus in 2018, and then I began revising it in 2019. When I was done with the book, it went to my copyeditor-proofreader, plus two other proofreaders, and also a few of my trusted early readers. From concept to publication-ready, it spanned three years of my life.
Don’t forget to comment for a giveaway of one copy of Call You Home to a random name. The giveaway ends on August 16, 2019 (Friday).
Happy reading, everyone!
In Christ,
Jan Thompson
Renate says
Hi Jan! Thanks for your insightful blog. Since I have been following authors for years, I know most authors take about a year to write a novel. So many factors are involved. It took Harper Lee 18 months of full time writing to produce her masterpiece To Kill a Mockingbird. Writing is hard work. Therefore as a reader, I appreciate authors and their craft. Best wishes.
Wemble says
Hi Jan, thanks so much for taking the time to research this and share it with us. I am one of those horrible readers- I read quite fast, so I’m always eager for fav authors to get new books out quickly!! In saying that, I do re-read books, many times over in fact.
Blessings:)
Michelle says
Hi, Jan! Knowing how long, or not so long, it takes an author to write a book does not change my mind. However, I was surprised to hear it only took months. I would think it took years. Thank you for your insightful post.
Sherri G says
I’m like Wemble, I read fast so I’m always wanting that next book “now”. But I appreciate the time authors take to make their books the best they can be.
Lori R says
Your article was very interesting to see how long it takes you to write books. I really appreciate what all of you do and I appreciated the links to the books too!
Cassandra Myers says
Very interesting reading how fast or slow certain books can take. One of my favorite paranormal romance authors which their books are fairly long has been putting out 2-3 books a year lately including her historical line.
Lelia (Lucy) Reynolds says
I appreciate authors and how committed they are. Historical novels involve so much research and takes lots of time. Thank you for sharing your insight.
Paula Marie says
What insight to some of my favorite authors – including you, Jan! Thank you so much! No need to enter me, I already have Call You Home, in fact, it will be featured on my blog tomorrow!
kim says
New author for me.
Trudy says
Very interesting article!! I have to say, I’m ready for the next book when I finish the one I just read!! In traditional publishing, it takes six months to a year for the next book in a series to come out; however, with indie publishing, I’ve seen it take quite a bit less time! I think the writing time is close to be the same, but the it’s the rest that seems to take so long! To be honest, I’d have thought it would take indie publishing longer than traditional, but it’s the other way around!! To be honest, I’m finding I like indie published a lot better than some of the traditional!!
Valerie Comer says
How fun! I’m also guessing that for many of these authors, it can vary from book to book. I didn’t get the chance to reply to Jan’s original request, since I was on vacation at the time, but I write and release five novels a year on average, so about ten weeks apart. But then, this is my day job! I’m so thankful for that.
I’m also thankful for all of you who avidly await the next story in series by our Inspy Romance authors. We’re blessed by you!!!
Jan Thompson says
Thank you! Yes, re: “writing is hard work.” For me, whether it takes a long time or a short time, it’s still hard work. One of my novels took me 10 years to write, and another took me 10 weeks. :-)
Thanks again for commenting!
Natalya Lakhno says
WOW, I appreciate you all (authors) <3 with the amount of time you put into each book – that's incredible! Blessings in your writing!
Jan Thompson says
Hello Wemble! You’re not a “horrible reader” — authors love voracious readers! I’m also an avid reader myself, and it’s sometimes agonizing to wait 1-2 years for the next novel from the same author to be available, isn’t it? I’m glad we have a ton of books for us to choose from these days, more than ever, so that avid readers never run out of books to read!
Thank you for your comments and happy reading!
Jan Thompson says
Hello Michelle! Sometimes it does take years. Tolkien took many years to write his Lord of the Rings, for example. That is to say, it varies from author to author, IMHO. Each author has his or her own modus operandi.
Speaking for myself, my writing time varies even from book to book. Some of my books took me years, some took me months. I mentioned in a comment above that one of my novels took me 10 years to write. I have also taken 3-5 years to write a book. However, for some of my books, when the words flow, I write like the wind (after outlining for weeks or months before I write a word) and I might be done in 3-6 months. Having deadlines help authors not to take “forever” LOL!
Thank you for commenting!
Jan Thompson says
Thank you, Sherri! I try to read fast too. I remember when I used to check out books from the library (before I wrote commercially). I would devour the Christian historical fiction like they were candy. When I am writing, I don’t read in my own genres, but when I have free time, I will try to read more these days. With a limited time, I have to read fast. The only time I read slowly is when I am proofreading my own work or when I am correcting what my copyediting proofreader has found.
Yes, I absolutely agree with you that authors need to do their best with each book. And while at is, also enjoy reading their own books. :-)
Thank you for commenting!
Jan Thompson says
Thank you, Lori, for your comments! Isn’t it amazing how each author is different in their approach to writing their books! I hope you enjoy reading the books above. The authors have indeed put in a lot of hard work into their books.
Thanks for stopping by!
SARAH TAYLOR says
Blessings to all you Authors for all you put into your books Thank you for sharing this!
Jan Thompson says
Hello, Cassandra! That’s a good idea for authors to let their readers know when and how frequently to expect their next books!
For me, historical novels take a long time to write because of the amount of research. I have a few on the back burner that I may not be able to get to any time soon for that reason.
Thank you for commenting!
Jan Thompson says
Thank you Lucy! Yes, I do agree re: historicals. I also commented above the amount of work that goes into the research. I was writing Colonial historicals and some of the place I wrote about burned down at the end of the same century so the only records are written. It would be nice to be able to go there and look around LOL!
Thanks again for commenting!
Jan Thompson says
Thank you!
Jan Thompson says
Thank you, Paula! Appreciate it! I’m looking forward to your blog post tomorrow! :-)
Jan Thompson says
Hello Trudy! Yes, some hardcover series books in trad publishing can be one year apart. One author whose books I used to read spaced out his books two years apart. So by the time he gets his books out, I might have read a whole bag of other books already. And indeed, their preorders go on and on for months because their publishers can.
IMHO indie authors are like small presses with less overhead, and don’t need to schedule books a year or two out in advance. One thing that may affect indies is that Amazon only lets you do a preorder 3 months ahead of time. Apple Books lets you do preorders 6 months in advance, but no more. So there can’t be long preorders for indie books, unless they have special treatment or a rep at Amazon who can give them extended preorders.
I’m glad you like indie books! Me too!
Thank you again for commenting!
Jan Thompson says
Thank you, Valerie! Yes, you were on vacation when I decided to write on this topic for my August blog post.
When I grow up I would like to be as organized as you are with your book-writing schedules and deadlines! I’m still going in starts and spurts, so the number of books per year vary. My lowest was 2 books a year and highest was 6 books published a year.
Yes, I agree — thank you, everyone! All the avid readers and voracious readers who enjoy reading IR authors’ books!
Jan Thompson says
Thank you, Natalya!
Jan Thompson says
Thank you, Sarah!
MJSH says
It’s really quite fascinating how the writing process works for each author. I’ve read only two of the featured books in the post but it’s quite amazing the difference in timeline from start to finish.
Priscila says
This is quite interesting. Thanks to all of you for sharing how long it takes to usually write a book and some not-so-easy books to write about.
Dianna says
Most of the writers I follow spend about a year on a book. It’s so painful to wait for the next one that I always try to savor the newest!
Jan Thompson says
Thank you for your comments! I agree — each author has a different process. I hope you get to read more of the books featured today.
Thanks again for stopping by!
Jan Thompson says
Hello Priscila! Yes, it’s interesting how each process works for each author. I’m glad everyone shared too.
Thank you for stopping by!
Jan Thompson says
Thank you, Dianna! I agree — it can be a long wait in between books. I’m glad that we can enjoy good reads, even if we have to wait a little bit. Hopefully the wait won’t be too long!
Thanks again for stopping by!
denise says
interesting to see the differences for the authors writing time
Jan Thompson says
Isn’t it! They are as varied as the books that authors write!
Thank you for commenting!
Priscila Perales says
Hello :)
It’s not exactly that it changes my mind about the authors, but more like, it makes me appreciate the books, as well as their dedication to writing and to their readers. Honestly, I’m more surprised when an author says that s/he wrote it within weeks or a few months, since I was more familiar with 1-2 year(s) frame.
Still, this was a nice and informative article to read ;)
Emma says
thank you for book cover images to be taken directly to Amazon where you can buy the books. Your article was interesting.
Judy says
Thank you for the article and the introduction to the authors and books.
Jan Thompson says
Hello Priscila! Thank you for your comments. Even authors who write in “one year” may not take that long to write their books. For example, Michael Connelly (who writes mysteries) said that it takes him 8-9 months to write, from start to finish, with revisions. Jeffery Deaver said that it takes him sometimes 8 months to outline, 2 months to write, and then copious drafts and revisions. They do have the luxury of writing one book a year, often very long books. OTOH, indies can’t make a living on one book a year, so we write more frequently. We are also seeing now that traditionally published authors are releasing more than one book a year — sometimes by another publisher, sometimes on their own. There is now an avalanche of ebooks in the market!
Thanks again for stopping by!
Jan Thompson says
Thank you, Emma! I hope you enjoy reading the books!
Appreciate your comment!
Jan Thompson says
Thank you, Judy, for stopping by and for your comments!
Suzannah Clark says
I had no idea that authors could be so varied in the amount of time that it takes them to write a book. I guess I thought it would take years, so learning that one author did it in 30 days is quite frankly amazing. I imagine having to do research draws out the writing process too. Thanks for the wonderful article. How long did it take you to write it? lol
Jan Thompson says
Hello Suzannah! Yes, each author has her own style and schedule, for sure.
Good question about the blog post.
So it took me no more than half an hour to think about what topic I wanted to talk about this month and to write my own sections of the blog post.
However, it took me about 1-2 hours (or more, I can’t remember) to create that header graphics because I wanted it to be in a circle to mimic the clock face (reading the words clockwise) although I don’t know if anyone noticed. I spent a lot of time on that one graphic image LOL.
It took me 1-2 days to wait for everyone to see my request for comments (since we are not all online at the same time). Then it might have taken me a couple hours in cumulative total to get all the comments in, plus get their cover images and links and making sure all those work and are of the same sizes and the format of the post looked good. I also have to be sure to format them properly – citing sources, putting author comments verbatim in their own quotes (because it’s their words, not mine).
Then I let the blog post sit for a few days before I did the final proofreading to make sure that there were no typos. I don’t know how long this took LOL. I can’t remember because there are so many moving parts. I previewed it several times, reading it carefully to make sure there were no typos and that I quoted everyone properly (I referred back to their original quotes). When I was done, I was done.
I got the notification when the blog post was LIVE, and then I checked the comments in the afternoon. I wanted to do it in the morning but I had to take my son to the orthodontist and their WiFi was not so good LOL. So I had to wait until I got home before I checked the comments.
Thank you again for the good question and for commenting! Have a great day!
Sabrina Templin says
Hi Jan! I always find it interesting to see how long it takes an author to create a book. Most of the authors I follow publish 1- books a year. ANd while one is at the publisher’s they are already working on another. Each person’s abilities are different and it makes a difference whether it is a novella or a full length book, also. Thank you authors for writing for us readers! :D