How long from ms to book

Amanuensis

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Imagine your agent sold a manuscript and the (large) publisher wanted it out ASAP. What is the barest minimum amount of time that it would take? And is there some jargon term for doing that? Thanks.
 

Old Hack

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It all depends on how you define "ASAP".

I've seen books take two years or more from signing to publication, when not a moment was wasted in their publishing schedules. That was, for them, "ASAP".

I've seen books get hustled through the publishing schedule a bit more quickly than they would normally be moved, which have come out within four or six months of being signed.

I've seen books written, edited, printed and published in under a month (for example, when Michael Jackson died numerous new books about him popped up in a couple of weeks).

It all depends on how topical the book is and how much extra money a publisher is happy to throw at it to get it out on the shelves as quickly as possible.
 

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I have seen with my own eyes an ebook properly published in, what, three weeks? An ebook crash schedule ("crash" being the jargon you're after) in a fully-staffed trade publishing house can be very quick if you jump all the queues - the editors do nothing else, that sort of thing. The paperback edition schedule was about four months from acquisition to publication. I wouldn't have thought the schedules on Fifty Shades of Grey were particularly long, either.

You only do that if there's a pressing need, though - you can't crash everything. One reason for that is that the retailers plan about nine months in advance, so although you may be able to get a book out quicker than that, you'll still have to persuade them to change their plans at short notice. Etailers find this easier than bricks-and-mortar or catalogue retailers - they can be a bit more nimble - but it's still something they won't want to do too often.