HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE TO WRITE A BOOK? Author Jacqueline Lambert

AI – Artificial Intelligence – is growing apace.

It impacts authors, since many have discovered their work has been used without their knowledge to train AI. Many mainstream publishers are now looking into agreements to licence authors’ work to be used by AI.

Eric, a student, contacted me via my blog to ask my thoughts on tech giants using books to train AI. You can read my thoughts on that in my previous post.

He also asked my opinion on a potential licencing agreement mooted by publisher Harper Collins, with ‘Guardrails’. Here is the basis of the deal:

OPT IN ONLY	COMPENSATION	GUARDRAILS
Individual authors must grant permission to opt in	$5,000 per title, split 50/50 between author and publisher	Max 200 consecutive words in AI output
Three year contract term	Direct payment to author	Limited to 5% of book’s text
Separate from the original publishing agreement	Not counted against existing advances	AI company cannot scrape pirated content

I replied: “200 words is a paragraph. I know authors whose daily writing target is 2-300 words.”

This prompted the rather open-ended question: How long does it take to write a book?

If you’re thinking of writing a book, or are just curious, read on to find my answer.

‘How long does it take to write a book?’ is a good question, albeit one akin to ‘How long is a piece of string?’

I don’t log my time writing – a book is finished when it’s finished! But I can give an indication of my own timescale for writing a book.

Most of my books originated as blog posts on my travel blog, www.WorldWideWalkies.com. Each post, which often ends up as the basis of a chapter, takes at least a week (usually more) to write, revise, and edit. This is obviously not writing full time, but fitting it in between life!

On average, each post/chapter is about 2,000 words, and represents many hours’ work.

I then collate the chapters into a volume, revise and edit, rewrite etc.

My books range from 50,000 to 70,000 words. So, the absolute minimum time to write a first draft of the shortest book is 25 weeks, or around six months.

In practice, it would be longer.

Then, the first draft must be revised, edited, beta read, revised following beta feedback, then proof read.

I give beta readers a month to supply feedback. Editing and proof reading varies, but because I know when my manuscript is ready, I can usually schedule this so that the feedback arrives within a couple of weeks, so say a month for both. Then let’s say a month to implement all the feedback and revisions and check the print and ebook proofs. I now format myself, so I don’t have to factor in a time delay for this any more.

So, if I add in a month for implementing revisions on top of writing the first draft, beta reading, editing and proof reading, the minimum time to write a short 50,000-word book would be approximately 9 months.

Of course, this is just my time. It does not take into account the monetary investment I make in producing a book, which AI companies have been wanting to use for free. My post A Beginner’s Guide to Self Publishing a Book & Selling it on Amazon gives an indication of the costs involved.

I can’t hazard a guess at the hours spent. I’m not sure I want to know! My hourly rate would be depressing…

Which led Eric on to another question – What is my biggest motivation to write?

My biggest motivation to write is because I must! I love writing and published or not, I would write. I have kept diaries all my life, and have always sought an outlet for my writing – be it work newsletters, letters and postcards to friends and family, or latterly, social media or my blog.

My biggest motivation to publish is because I like to entertain, and also inspire. I want to show others that it is possible to live your dream life without being a millionaire or lottery winner.

My books ON HOW TO LIVE YOUR DREAM LIFE WITHOUT BEING A MILLIONAIRE OR LOTTERY WINNER!

Image of all Jacqueline Lambert's books against a winter background with the text 'Cosy Reads for Cold Winter Nights - Fun Travel Memoirs with Dogs'

more information on ai licencing & what to do if your book has been used to train ai without your consent

What does the Society of Authors think about the Harper Collins AI Licencing Agreement? Read their response HERE.

The Authors’ Guild take on the Harper Collins AI Licencing Agreement.

Follow these links for advice from the Society of Authors and The Authors’ Guild on how to find out if your book has been used to train AI, and what to do if it has.

Cover image by Franz Bachinger from Pixabay

If you are interested in participating in Eric’s research on the Intersection of Writing and AI, please contact me and I will put you in touch.

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Jackie with The Fab Four in Monte Rosa, Italy