The Question of Writing and Publishing

Why do writers think of writing and publishing when it comes to a book?

Writing on a Laptop and Publishing

Recently I had a long discussion with a friend about writing and publishing. A long discussion. It seemed rather circular in nature since he doesn’t know much about the craft of writing nor about publishing a book.

It is safe to say he was amazed at the work that goes into writing any book. One of his first questions was “How long does it take to writer a book?” Not a hard question unless you look deeper into it. It is an honest question, which he elaborated on: he figured it should take about 25-30 days to write a good book, after all look at the books that are out, simple plot concept and good characters, and easy reading level.

Can someone who is just beginning to write, have a great book in 30 days?  I understand a person can have a draft in 30 days.  A better question is this one: how many hours would it take per day?

I asked him about Publishing. It’s easy, takes about 4 months to get something published, after all paperbacks aren’t that complex to make. “that’s why everyone wants to write… it seems easy” It seems easy is an honest observation from someone who is not a writer.

For most people the start of writing is easy, but getting through the edits and the rewrites are not so easy. That can take a while. A long while, mostly because you don’t want to mess with a “good thing” that is not so good but since the writer is the one editing and rewriting it it is hard to admit that the manuscript is not that good.

Which brought him to the next point. Publishing and marketing your book to the right networks. It seems very easy to go get published with good marketing. That theory aside, it isn’t easy when it comes to a book.

Yes you need good marketing but all the good marketing in the world won’t help if the book is not good, or not finished or published.

He agreed, to a point. he viewed that a book needs to be written well, but there must be other ways to get it done faster. He commented that he’d keep his day job until it got easier to write, and publish and market a book.