The average time to write a book for most authors is 180 days, or 6 months, more or less. Usually, it takes authors anywhere from 4-8 months to complete a book. However, you can definitely write a book faster than that!
Erica Vetsch: The true answer is—it depends. If I'm on a deadline of some kind, I can write from 4-6 hours a day. Mostly, I write from 2-4 hours on weekday afternoons. I do lots of other writing tasks like editing, marketing, blogging, etc, but for writing on the manuscript, I average about 3 hours per weekday.
Writers' speeds vary … a lot. Some writers would consider 100 words an hour to be a perfectly productive rate. Others would be disappointed by 1,000 words an hour.
How long does it take to write a 200 page book? The average person can expect to spend 3 -7 months writing a 200 page book if they focus on writing more than 1500 words per week. Now, this would equate to roughly 50,000 words.
Writing 100 pages will take about 20.8 hours for the average writer typing on a keyboard and 41.7 hours for handwriting. However, if the content needs to include in-depth research, links, citations, or graphics such as for a blog article or high school essay, the length can grow to 166.7 hours.
Writing 400 pages will take about 83.3 hours for the average writer typing on a keyboard and 166.7 hours for handwriting.
On 11 January 2007 the author stepped out of Edinburgh's Balmoral hotel having completed the last novel in the Harry Potter series — the culmination of 17 years of writing. But that wasn't all J.K. Rowling wrote while she was there…
Stephen King: 2,000 Words
In his book On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, King speaks on his writing speed. He would set a daily goal of about 2,000 words. This would add up to about 180,000 words in three months of writing.
Writing 20 pages will take about 4.2 hours for the average writer typing on a keyboard and 8.3 hours for handwriting. However, if the content needs to include in-depth research, links, citations, or graphics such as for a blog article or high school essay, the length can grow to 33.3 hours.
What is a good reading speed in pages? While slow readers usually read up to 30 pages per hour, average readers can read about 40 pages per hour. When it comes to fast readers, they can go through up to 60 pages per hour.
Completing a book requires time, dedication, and brain power, as does any task worth doing. Did you know that 97% of people who start to write a book never finish it? That's a pretty staggering statistic. Out of every 1,000 people that set out to do so, only 30 actually complete the task.
4) Stephen King – 2000 Words
In it, King discusses his writing routine and how he writes around 2000 words (or six full pages) every workday.
Self-published authors can earn up to 70% royalties from their books, while most traditionally published authors make 5-18% royalties which they only receive after 'earning out'. That means the books sales have “paid back” their advances and the publishers then start giving them a cut of book sales.
Within the book publishing industry, it is agreed that the odds of an author getting their work published stands between 1% and 2%. Despite this low number, more than 95% of manuscripts received by publishers and agents are below the level the standard required.
Can You Write 1000 Words in an Hour? The answer is yes. However, anyone who's heard the phrase "quality over quantity," knows it's possible at an expense.
Writing 100,000 words will take about 41.7 hours for the average writer typing on a keyboard and 83.3 hours for handwriting. However, if the content needs to include in-depth research, links, citations, or graphics such as for a blog article or high school essay, the length can grow to 333.3 hours.
Use a comfortable keyboard
With fast typing speeds, use of shortcuts and a comfortable keyboard, it is theoretically possible to write 2,000 words in under an hour. This is based on a typing speed of 50 words per minute and allowing for several pauses to think.
King replied: “Here's the thing: There are books and there are books.” He explained that he writes for three or four hours each day and tries to produce a half dozen “fairly clean” pages in that time. “So if the manuscript is, say, 360 pages long, that's basically two months' work — but that's assuming it goes well. “
There are, of course, outliers. The top 2% or so of authors make a good living and the most successful authors – including self-published authors – make a tremendous amount of money.”
Most adults — including writers — need 7 to 9 hours per night. Getting more sleep may be the best favour you can do for your writing.
Writing 8 pages will take about 1.7 hours for the average writer typing on a keyboard and 3.3 hours for handwriting. However, if the content needs to include in-depth research, links, citations, or graphics such as for a blog article or high school essay, the length can grow to 13.3 hours.
Writing 40 pages will take about 8.3 hours for the average writer typing on a keyboard and 16.7 hours for handwriting.
While a slow reader will only get through 30 pages per hour, the average person can read around 40 pages per hour.
“I usually get up fairly early, I got up at 4:30 this morning, but I usually get up between 6 and 6:30. I always have a pad on my bedside, in case I want to write straight away. I also have a habit at night of leaving a sentence unfinished, so I can pick up on it the next morning.
She revealed that, like many old-fashioned writers, she prefers to write in longhand first then types up her story afterwards. Though she plans heavily, she revealed that her plans are not always set in stone, as (like any writer knows) stories can go under a significant amount of revisions following the first draft.