Free tool: How long would your book take, how big is it, and should you hire a ghostwriter or write it yourself? The Book Planner answers all three.
Most people who ask how long a book takes are really asking something else: what will my next six months look like? (See the free Book Planner) How much of my time does this take, and when will I see pages? This is the calendar of a typical project in my practice, from the first call to the manuscript going to an editor. Every book is different, so treat the weeks as a guide. For what happens at each stage and why, see how a ghostwriting project works.
I’d rather a prospect ask me about their calendar than about anything else, because busy people picture a book eating every evening for a year, and that fear stops good books before they start. It doesn’t work that way in my practice. Most of the work is mine, and what I need from you is a few steady hours a week, protected like any meeting that matters, for a few months.
What happens before week one?
A typical project runs four to eight months from first interview to finished manuscript, plus about a month of final revision.
A conversation, then paperwork. The first call is free and commits you to nothing: we talk about the book, who it’s for, and whether ghostwriting is the right route. If it is, I write a statement of work covering the scope, the “up to” word count, the timeline, payments, confidentiality and ownership. You sign when you’re ready. Some clients sign within a week. Others take a month to decide, and that’s fine.
What happens in weeks one and two?
The kickoff and the first interviews. Week one opens with an hour-long kickoff meeting where we settle the book’s reader, its promise and how we’ll work together. Interviews start the same week or the next. Expect one to three sessions a week, by Zoom, phone or in person, each recorded, with a summary sent to you afterward.
Your time: two to four hours a week, mostly talking. I tell clients these are the most valuable hours in the whole project. Everything I write later comes out of them, and a client who hurries through the interviews to get to the pages ends up with a thinner book.
What happens in weeks three to eight?
More interviews, then the outline. The interview phase runs a month or two, depending on the book. Most books take about 20 interviews, and I ask clients to book them a week ahead and to avoid Mondays. We can short-circuit that by cutting out the chit-chat, and if a client tends to talk a long time, I’ll run control on it.
By the end of it, I know your material well enough to build the outline: what the book argues, what goes in each chapter, and which stories carry which points. You review and approve it before drafting begins. Early chapters can start in this window too, once the first sections are clear.
Your time: the same interview rhythm, plus an hour or two to review the outline carefully.
It’s the most important document you’ll approve, so argue with it. A skimmed outline turns into a real problem in month four, when moving half the chapters costs weeks nobody planned for. I’d much rather hash out the structure now, while it’s cheap to change.
What happens in months three to six?
Chapters arrive. This is the longest stretch. I write the chapters and send each one as it’s finished, so you’re reading steadily instead of facing a whole manuscript at the end. You read, correct, and tell me what doesn’t sound like you. I revise as we go. Follow-up interviews fill gaps as they turn up.
A skimmed outline turns into a real problem in month four, when moving half the chapters costs weeks nobody planned for.
Back in 2024 my pace was 500 words a day, four days a week, with the fifth day for reviewing that week’s pages and making them better. That works out to roughly 8,000 words a month. I set it up that way on purpose. I don’t want to stress you out or get stressed out myself, because nobody writes as good a book under stress.
A 50,000-word book lands in this window. A longer memoir or a research-heavy book runs toward eight months or beyond.
Your time: reading and responding to a chapter every week or two, plus an occasional short interview. Tell me the moment a line doesn’t sound like you. I want to hear “I’d never say that” in chapter two, while it’s one sentence. By the final read, the same habit can run through ten chapters.
What happens in the final month?
The full-manuscript pass. When the last chapter is done, you read the whole book in order. That’s a different experience from reading it chapter by chapter. You’ll notice repetition, pacing and gaps you couldn’t see before. You send one consolidated set of notes, and I make the final revision. Then the manuscript moves on to editing and proofreading, with an editor I recommend or one you choose.
Your time: a careful read of the whole book over a week or two.
What slows a ghostwriting project down?
Almost always, the calendar on the client’s side. Canceled interviews, chapters that sit unread for weeks, a new decision-maker who wants to revisit the outline. None of it is unusual, but each week of delay on your side becomes a week on the finish date. Scope growth adds time too, so extra chapters are agreed as a change order before they’re written.
I carry six to eight clients a year and work on several books at once. When one client goes quiet, my other books keep moving and theirs waits its turn, and the date they cared about slides a little further every week. It drives me up the wall, because it’s nearly always avoidable.
Life also interrupts. Illness, a business crisis, a death in the family. If you need to pause, say so, and the project waits. My contracts only treat a project as on hold after 30 days of silence and abandoned after 60. A short note keeps your place. My article on pausing a ghostwriting project covers how it works.
| What slows it | What to do |
|---|---|
| Canceled interviews | Book a week ahead and block the slots before you sign, like a standing meeting |
| Chapters sitting unread for weeks | Read and respond to each chapter within a week or two |
| A skimmed outline revisited months later | Argue with the outline before drafting, while it is cheap to change |
| Lines that do not sound like you | Say so in chapter two, while it is one sentence |
| Scope growth | Agree extra chapters as a change order before they are written |
| Life interrupts | Send a short note and the project waits; silence means on hold after 30 days |
Can a ghostwritten book be done faster?
Yes, at a cost. A rush project means other work moves aside, so it costs more per word and needs more paid up front. The fastest I’ve produced a book was 80,000 words in three months, and it only worked because the client made interviews and chapter reviews a priority. My article on getting a book written in three months explains what that takes.
My take
Your calendar decides the finish date more than mine does. A book on schedule slides week by week when interviews get canceled and chapters sit unread. Block the interview time before we sign, read each chapter within a week or two, and tell me in chapter two when a line doesn’t sound like you. If life blows up, send a short note and the project waits. Silence is what costs you the date.
How do you plan your own calendar around a book?
Work backward from the date that matters: a conference, a product launch, a retirement party, a milestone birthday. Allow for editing, cover design and publishing after the manuscript. They add weeks of their own. Then block the interview slots before you sign, the way you’d block a standing meeting. Clients who protect that hour every week finish on time.
If you want to see the first weeks before committing to all of them, the Book Discovery Intensive runs ten hours of interviews and ends with a strategy and a sample chapter. My ghostwriting services cover the full project.
The plan to start a book once life calms down is a fantasy. Life doesn’t calm down, and the people waiting for a quiet season are still waiting years later with the book in their heads. Pick the date that matters, block the hours before you sign, and give the book a few months of steady attention, because that’s all it asks of you.
Week by week is the short version. The Ghostwriting Advantage is the long one, my book on how to get your book written for you, in 48 chapters.
