A Book Self-Publishing Timeline

By arfield22Books, Self-Publishing
Photo by Vidar Nordli-Mathisen on Unsplash

This summer, I self-published my first book, Agile Discovery & Delivery: A Survival Guide for New Software Engineers & Tech Entrepreneurs. After several people asked me about the self-publishing process, I decided to write a self-publishing series. This is the final article in that series. Here, I discuss my self-publishing timeline, then (with the benefit of hindsight) what I would have done differently and how that would have changed my self-publishing path.

Previously in the series, we covered:

Check out those articles if you’re just getting started or want to learn more about a particular topic!

How Long Does It Take to Self-Publish a Book?

With the benefit of hindsight, I can tell you the precise, unsatisfactory answer to the question, “how long does it take to self-publish a book?” It depends (wah wah). Some very experienced authors can write and publish a book in a couple of months, some can do it in six, most take well over a year. It took me almost two years.

What’s with the wide range? Of course, it depends on your and your book.

It depends a tiny bit on your book length. It also depends on how much time you can dedicate to your writing, your experience self-editing, whether you have a great editor or proofreader to work with already and how quickly they can fit you into their schedule. Are you a perfectionist? Do you need to get a few permissions or a lot? Have you built a really solid habit of working on your book each and every day?

My Self-Publishing Timeline

It took me 21 months to complete my book. However, I took six months off in the middle while I taught a class and waited for traditional publishers to get back to me. I suspect that a realistic timeline for publishing your first book is likely 1.5+ years.

Here’s what my self-publishing timeline looked like:

Year 1: October 2021-December 2022

  1. Oct-Feb: First Draft
  2. Feb-Mar: Developmental Editing & Writing Group Feedback
  3. Apr-May: Beta Reader Feedback & Updates
  4. June-Dec: Publisher Inquiries, Teaching Break, & Waiting on Publishers

Year 2: Dec 2022-August 2023

  1. Jan-Apr: More Developmental Editing & Line Editing
  2. Late Apr: Editor Reviews the Manuscript
  3. May: Incorporate Editor Feedback, Graphics / Permissions, & Book Cover
  4. June: Proofreader
  5. June-July: eBook Pre-order Page on Amazon, Manuscript Formatting, Book Cover Changes
  6. July 18, 2023: eBook is Published!!
  7. July: Paperback & Hardcover Formatting
  8. August 3, 2023: Paperback & Hardcover are Published!!

It’s an amazing amount of work when you put it all together, but I can say that the time I spent on the book was very fulfilling (and sometimes mind-numbingly tedious, but mostly fulfilling)! But by the time I got to August 3rd, I was ready for a break from the book.

Lessons Learned

If I could write this book all over again (and right now I suspect that I 100% will write another book in the near future), here’s what I would do differently.

  1. Start promoting my book from day one. I would blog about it, tell people about it, and put up an Amazon pre-order page as soon as my first round of editing was complete, about 6-12 months ahead of time. That means my cover would be done that far in advance too. Truth be told, the last thing I needed to publish my eBook was for my book cover creator to add my final cover blurb. It came in way too late.
  2. I wouldn’t bother with traditional publishers at all. I spoke with a number of traditional publishers and spent 9 months working with O’Reilly before I decided they were moving too slowly. All of them said the same thing. Unless you have an author platform with thousands of followers and 7-8 events per month with which to help promote your book, traditional publishers aren’t going to be interested. They want to sign deals that they’re darn sure are going to sell 25k+ books. Put that together with the fact that when you self-publish, you retain all of your rights, own the timeline, and make more money per book. Honestly, I’m not sure why anyone wouldn’t self-publish in today’s world, especially for their first book.
  3. I would reach out to an editor and proofreader a couple of months before I needed them, so that I could get on their schedules precisely when I was ready for them.
  4. Speaking of editors, they are amazing humans who can give you really important insights on your work. I did way too many rounds of self-editing before turning the book over to an editor. I should have done that sooner.
  5. I would reach out to a few extra Beta readers because some of them simply won’t come through for you. Each person I got feedback from made the book better.

My Ideal Self-Publishing Timeline

If I could do this over, what would my ideal self-publishing timeline look like? Here’s a guess at what I would do if I’d known then what I know now.

  1. Day 1: Start promoting the book and do at least one thing to promote the book every week
  2. 4 Months: First Draft
  3. 1 Month: Beta Reader Feedback + Find an Editor & Proofreader
  4. 1 Month: Book Updates & Edits
  5. 1 Week-1 Month: Editor Review + Book Cover & Blurbs + Amazon Pre-order Page
  6. 2 Months: Book Updates & Edits, Line-editing, Graphics & Permissions
  7. 1 Month: Proofreader
  8. 1 Month: Build Manuscripts
  9. 1 Month: Prep for Launch
  10. LAUNCH (& throw a big launch party!)

I do think that next time I may be able to write a book in about 12-18 months. In fact, I’ve heard that if you want to make a career out of self-publishing, then publishing a new book every 18 months is ideal. But I know that there are many successful authors that do things very differently.

And that’s why I love the self-publishing scene. It’s a place where every author can publish their own work at their own pace.

Thanks for Reading the Self-Publishing Series!

I hope you’ve enjoyed my self-publishing series! If you have, please subscribe to this blog and/or comment below to let me know where you are in the self-publishing process. Good luck and enjoy the self-publishing ride!