Time frame for getting published?

[NTG]

Suppose you've written a novel that is good enough for publication. How long is it likely to take before that novel is sitting on bookstore shelves?
Let's set some parameters:

Minimum: What is the least amount of time you can reasonably expect, if everything works out more or less smoothly and your work is accepted on the first submission? What are the steps, and time intervals between those steps, between looking at the manuscript and sighing "There! It's done!" and walking into a bookstore and saying, "Yay, there it sits!"

Average range: What is a more likely timeframe, in the real world, based on the averages of authors who have seen their work on the bookstore shelf?

Maximum (the point beyond which you declare the manuscript legally dead): When do you finally start to think that maybe you better start on a different book?

Background: I am about half-way through a manuscript that I will attempt to have published. Other than writing it, I have done nothing except discover this forum. No agent, no contacts yet. What I'm looking for is a reality check. How much time is it reasonable to expect for a first novel if one assumes it is good enough? (Which of course it may not be. That's a different question)

[JanDarby]

Without considering the time for actually writing and revising a manuscript to publishable quality (and the fact that most -- not all, but most -- first manuscripts are never brought up to publishable quality, and it's a subsequent manuscript that's sold), the timeline ranges go something like this:

Six months to ten years to sign with an agent.

Six months to ten years to get an offer from a publisher (whether done through direct submissions to editors or through an agent, although it could be a little shorter through an agent, perhaps 2-4 months, but probably not).

A couple months from the oral agreement to signing the contract (and around this time, maybe a month later, the first portion of the advance is paid). A couple months from signing the contract to getting a revision letter for any work they want done on the manuscript, and then a couple months to a year for the actual revisions.

A year to 18 months from the date of the editor accepting the revised manuscript to seeing it on the shelves. Another year or so before any royalties (over and above the advance) are paid.

It's too early in the morning for me to do the math, but, generally speaking, you're looking at 3 years from starting to submit the completed manuscript to seeing the book in the bookstore. More or less, depending on how long it takes to get an agent and how far in advance the publisher has its slots filled.

And you don't wait until one manuscript is declared unsaleable before you write the next one. You start writing that the day after you finish the previous one. In fact, many people start the draft of Book #2 after finishing the draft of Book #1, while waiting a few weeks or months before editing Book #1, and kind of leapfrog the two.

Anyway, writing is not for the faint -- or impatient -- of heart.

JD

[Jack_Roberts]

10 YEARS to find an agent? My... gosh.

[Amiton]

I'm not a local expert by far, but I'll offer a little bit to get things started.

I think the minimum is going to be situational. If you're writing a time-appropriate book (say about a nuclear program in N. Korea) and have good connections then I think your best-case scenario is about four to six months from acceptance by a publisher. From what I can gather, however, most books take quite a bit longer to get to the presses.

From what I've read around here and there, it seems like the normal time from acceptance to shipping is a year to a year and a half. There are a frew authors around here that have been through the process several times (and even agents and editors, too) who would be more accurate, though.

As far as a maximum, I think that's going to be a personal decision. When are you ready to give up? What is your last straw? Do you quit when you have queried all of the agents and publishers on your list? Do you go for a round, put your MS away for a year, rework and repolish it, and then try again? I think it's a personal limitation. There are people that never really give up on their novels, but I'm also pretty sure that they don't stop moving their writing forward, either. If you publish your second novel (or third, etc.), sometimes it makes your first one a little more marketable.

Of course, those who know much better than I should be along shortly yo give you the real skinny...

Amiton.

[Siddow]

I haven't been through all of the agent/publisher/seeing my book in a bookstore, but I can answer this question:

When do you finally start to think that maybe you better start on a different book?

You should start the next one while you're shopping the first one around. Actually, you should ideally have a backlog of manuscripts, maybe three or more. Each book will (hopefully, if you're learning and not just churning) be better than the last. IF you do manage to snag an agent and they get you a book deal, it will likely be a two-book deal. You'll have anywhere from a year to 18 months to submit the second book. That's a lot of pressure. I'm working on my third novel now, and I'm not ready to submit yet. Maybe after I write two more.

Good luck with yours. Focus on finishing it, polishing it, and doing research on agents and how publishing works, and thinking about the next book.

[Tracy]

What they all said. At least a year after acceptance. Definitely not a lifestyle choice for the impatient.

[NeuroFizz]

Here's a bit of it: Time from signing contract with the publisher to the appearance of the book can be from one to two years. Some publishers might be a bit faster, but consider one year the low estimate and two years the high estimate. The time is used to allow the cover artist to do her/his thing, to get agreement on cover art (if author is given a say), to work with publisher's editor to get the manuscript in publishable form--three passes are common in my experience, to receive and check over page proofs, and to give the publisher time to send out pre-prints to get advanced reviews for the book. This is one reason the more experienced authors here advise writers to be cautious about writing to a hot-selling genre or sub-genre. It may not be so hot by the time the book comes out. This is also why experienced writers always have a pipeline of projects in the works.

[Doug Johnson]

Plus, only about 1% of people who write a book get published. And for most of those who do get published, the pay sucks.

[Gillhoughly]

It took me two years, twenty+ rewrites of Chapter One and two full rewrites of the whole book...on a typewriter with White-Out and carbons. This was AFTER I'd sold some small pieces.

Then it was a 14 month wait for the book to actually get into the stores. During that wait I worked on more books.

The only time you need be in a hurry in publishing is to make a deadline.

[NTG]

Excellent feedback. And I knew the part about having another project in the works even before the first one is finished being written, let alone sold. Sloppy figure of speech. Needs editing!
What about shopping for an agent? The way I'm understanding things thus far, you want to have a completed manuscript before you even begin to look for an agent. But I would think that starting the search process before you've actually finished the book would be helpful. At least an agent could look at what you've got so far, say that it's got possibilities, call me again when it's done. And then you've shortened the timeline by the amount of time it takes to find an agent. Is that a good idea, or not? Is it a judgment call, or a never do?

[ORION]

They don't have time to look at what you've got to see if it's got possibilities - you use writers groups and classes for that...An agent wants to know if you can actually FINISH a manuscript. For me it took three years and four manuscripts before obtaining representation. That is very fast. I was picked up for book three. I queried the first book while writing the second etc...
While your idea of shopping a novel before it's done looks good from a writer's point of view - it is frustrating from an agents perspective - one of the lit agents blog - I think it's Jennifer Jackson -talks about this.
i.e. getting excited about a book and finding out it's not finished.
As far as getting an idea of what you've done - writing retreats, writers' groups and beta readers give more bang for your buck.
Also...if you query before a project is finished and it needs lots more work - you muddy the waters...you usually only have one shot with these agents...don't waste it.
As in everything there are exceptions.
I decided that I shouldn't bank on the fact that I might be an exception and got to work finishing my manuscripts before I queried and it worked for me.
JMHO

[NTG]

Good point. I can see where it could muddy the waters if you seem/are impatient and end up making a bad impression on an agent. Don't want that.
So how does one PREPARE to start looking for an agent when the manuscript is done? That is, how do you window shop before you actually make a move to contact one?

[ORION]

You can start that before you finish your manuscript. Subscribe to Publishers Marketplace and start looking at deals for novels that are similar to your book. Look up the agents that do these deals on agentquery.com and make sure the agents either work for a reputable agency with sales or are AAR members. You can start getting together a list of these agents, read some of the books they represent so you have a great opening line for your query ("I read the book XXXXX that you represented and found it XXX")
Start going to writers' conferences and meeting other writers, agents and editors to chat and get an idea what they are like.
It takes months (years) to research the industry and see how it works. This site is a good start.
When you compile a list of 50 agents put them in order of preference and then re-edit your book to make sure it is PERFECT. Have beta readers read it and start book 2.
One of the reasons my agent was excited about representing me was that I had four finished manuscripts and was working on a 5th. She knew I was serious about my career.
You wouldn't enter a triathalon on a whim. You need to train and research how to compete.
Writing novels for publication is the same...
JMHO
Hope this helps

[janetbellinger]

Ten years? I should be so lucky. I've been writing fiction and submitting to agents and publishers for 13 years, without a bite. It gets a bit hard to push back the anguish and substitute positive thoughts, to try a little harder, try something different in my writing or something new, to listen more closely to writing experts, take more writing courses, join more writing groups, and on and on and on. I guess my question is; At what point do y ou just throw in the towel and quit writing altogether?

[Simon Woodhouse]

I started submitting in January of 2005, and out of three positive responses to thirty plus queries, I signed with a small publisher in Australia in September of the same year. One year later the book is now in the hands of the chief editor, and I've just finished dealing with the cover artist. There's a chance I might get a publication date before Christmas, but it's more likely to be the beginning of 2007. That'll mean the whole process has taken about two years.

[aghast]

from contract to shelves usually takes up to 2 years but it takes from weeks to never to get an agent or publisher and yes agents do expect full ms unless yous is really brilliant

[blacbird]

"Never" is at one end of the spectrum.

caw.

[cree]

You should start the next one while you're shopping the first one around. Actually, you should ideally have a backlog of manuscripts, maybe three or more.
This is some of the best advice I've seen.
I wish someone had advised me of this back when I got my first book off. I had no inventory.
Build inventory to spare yourself a whole lot of pressure.

[spacejock2]

Ten years? I should be so lucky. I've been writing fiction and submitting to agents and publishers for 13 years, without a bite. It gets a bit hard to push back the anguish and substitute positive thoughts, to try a little harder, try something different in my writing or something new, to listen more closely to writing experts, take more writing courses, join more writing groups, and on and on and on. I guess my question is; At what point do y ou just throw in the towel and quit writing altogether?

Never.

Took me 12 years from first word of my novel to publication, and if you check this blog post (http://halspacejock.blogspot.com/2006/09/make-money-fast-not.html) of mine you'll find anything from 13-20 years amongst Fantasy authors.

[Jamesaritchie]

My experience has been that from the day a publisher makes an offer, it will be from twelve to twenty-four months before a first novel is actually released.

I don't think it's possible to put an average time frame on how long it takes to write a novel, how long it takes to find an agent, and how long it takes for that agent to find a publisher.

If you do everything right, it can happen extremely fast. If you write a poor query letter/synopsis, and/or if your manuscript isn't as good as you think it is, it can take from many years to never.

The first agent I queried asked for my first nove novel, I wrote the novel in three weeks, and she sold it to the first publisher she sent it to. I went from querying an agent to selling the novel in about two months. It was released just over a year later.

Averages just don't mean much. If you can write something people agents and editors want, it can, and probably will, all happen pretty darned fast. If you can't write something agents and editors want, and most can't, it will never happen.

If you can write something agents and editors want, but don't know how to get them to read it by writing a good query/synopsis, or by getting a partial in front of them, , it can take a long, long time, but it will happen.

If you write somethng an agent of editor simply thinks of as a "slot filler," meaning no one expects it to sell very well, but it's better than anything else they can find at the moment, then you have to get lucky and submit your novel to just the right agent or editor at just the right time. Luck is never something to count on.

But I think you're getting a bit ahead of yourself. Finish the novel. Make it as good as you can make it. Learn to write a good query letter/synopsis because this is where many new writers fail. When the novel is finished, start submitting it. If it really is any good, you will sell it.

But a week or so after you finsih it, start working on a second novel. It's just not very realistic to expect a first effort to be good enough to land in the top one percent of everything out there. It may be, but probably not. Writing is something that's learned, and it may take two or three or four novels before you write one anyone wants to risk money on.

Either way, forget averages and forget odds. Writing isn't a lottery. If you're good enough, if you have enough talent, and if you work hard enough, someone will want what you write. And the better you are, the harder you work, and the more you learn, the faster they'll want it.

[aruna]

I can give you a couple of time frames.

My first completed novel found an agent at the first shot. She was just starting out, building her list, and I read an article about her in the UK mag Writers News.
At the time, I thought the way things happened normal, but they weren't at all.
This was about 1994. I sent her my full ms. I didn't hear form her for some time, then she asked me if I could visit her. Mind you, I lived in Germany and she in London. I said yes, of course, and flew to London, nervous as hell. Naive as I was, I thought she had summoned me to tell me the ms was terrible. ONly when I actualy got there did she say, "It's terrific." But it needed work. Right there and then she went through it with me, crossing out pages and pages. It was 700 pages, and far too long. I did not know to count words at the time; I didn't have a PC yet.

I revised the ms according to her instructions and sent it in. She required more revisions. I did them. She sent it off. Rejections. One or two of the publishers had said they'd consider a rewrite, so I did that. More rejections. IN short, that agent and I worked together for four years and the ms was never purchased.

I started a new novel and she liked the first chapter. However, when I sent her the full, she didn't read it. MOnths went by with no word from her. I gues she'd had enough of me by then!

To make a long story short: without my even looking for one, another, more established, agent "found" and signed me, so I fired the first one who still hadn't read my ms after about 6 months.

Now I can give you more exact timelines. I signed with her July 1998. She found me a publisher about 2 weeks later. The book was on the shelves July 1999. So: from signing with agent till seeing it in the store, one year, which must be a minimum of some sort.

However, the short answer is, as always, "it depends".
I've left that agent since and couldn't find a new one for my fourth novel. I found one for my fifth fairly quickly.