If you’re writing a book for the first time, you’ve probably asked Google how long does it take to write a nonfiction book, and gotten answers that range from 30 days to several years. Those quick success stories are real for some people, but they can leave you feeling like you’re already behind before you’ve written a single chapter.

I’ve been coaching first-time nonfiction authors for more than 18 years, and the honest answer I give my clients is that it usually takes about a year to write your first nonfiction book. Some authors take a little longer, and authors who come to me with a big part of their manuscript already written can sometimes move faster. But a year is a healthy, realistic expectation, and planning around it is one of the kindest things you can do for yourself.

In this post, I’ll walk you through what that year actually looks like, the things that speed up or slow down your timeline, and how to turn your own book into a weekly plan you can stick with. You’ll also find my original video on this topic further down the page.

How Long Does It Take to Write a Nonfiction Book? The Short Answer

For most of the first-time authors I work with, writing a nonfiction book takes around one year from idea to a finished manuscript you feel good about. That’s in line with what Reedsy found when it surveyed authors about how long it takes to write a book: most landed somewhere between six months and a year. For a first book, I find it lands closer to the year mark, and that’s completely normal.

The reason is simple. Your first book is also your first time learning how to write a book. You’re figuring out your structure, your voice, and your process while you write, and that learning takes time. It does get easier with every book after this one.

What That Year Usually Looks Like

Every book is different, but most first nonfiction books move through the same general stages.

Getting clear on your topic and reader. Before anything else, you decide what your book is about and who it’s for. If you’re still weighing a few ideas, my post on how to choose a topic for your nonfiction book walks you through it.

Outlining. This is the step that saves the most time later. When you know what each chapter needs to cover, you stop making big structural decisions while you’re trying to write. My guide on how to outline a nonfiction book shows you how to do this step by step.

Writing the first draft. This is usually the longest stage, and it’s where a steady weekly writing goal makes all the difference.

Revising. We never publish our first drafts. Plan time for a second draft, and sometimes a third, so your ideas are clear and your chapters flow. If you’d like professional feedback on whether your manuscript is headed in the right direction, developmental editing can happen at any stage, and on my end it typically takes about four to six weeks depending on your word count and my schedule.

What Affects How Long It Takes to Write Your Book

When clients ask me why their timeline looks different from someone else’s, it almost always comes down to a few things.

The kind of nonfiction book you’re writing. A memoir asks you to revisit memories and shape them into a story, which can take emotional energy as well as writing time. A self-help or how-to book needs clear steps and examples. A business or finance book may need data and case studies. Each one moves at its own pace.

How much research your book needs. The more you already know about your subject, the faster the writing goes. Books that rely on interviews, studies, or fact-checking naturally take longer, and that’s okay.

Your book’s length. A shorter, focused book takes less time than a long one. A helpful way to choose your target length is to look at the word counts of books similar to yours. My post on what your book’s word count should be talks through this.

The time you have each week. Most of my clients are writing around full-time work and family. When I started writing my very first book back in 2006, I was working full time, going to college full time, and my son was just starting high school, so I understand how much a busy season of life affects your pace.

Whether you have an outline. Authors who outline first tend to finish. Authors who skip it often find themselves rewriting the same early chapters again and again.

How to Estimate Your Own Timeline

You don’t have to guess. You can work out a realistic plan for your own book in a few minutes.

Start with your target word count. Let’s say your book will be around 50,000 words. If you give yourself a year and leave a few weeks for holidays and busy stretches, that works out to roughly 1,000 to 1,100 words a week. Spread over three or four writing sessions, that’s a few hundred words at a time, which feels a lot more doable than “write a book.”

Then save some time at the end for revising. A good rhythm for many first-time authors is to spend most of the year on the outline and first draft, and the last couple of months on revisions.

If you’d like help building this into your calendar, my post on how to create a writing schedule walks you through setting weekly goals and using Google Calendar to stay on track.

Why I Encourage a Realistic Deadline

When first-time authors set a very short deadline, like three or six months, and then life happens, they often feel discouraged. And when you feel like you’ve fallen behind, it gets much easier to set the book aside for good.

A realistic deadline does the opposite. It gives you room to learn, to have an off week without panicking, and to keep showing up. Steady progress is what finishes books, and a year gives you the space for that.

If you’d like support along the way: Accountability is one of the biggest reasons authors finish on time. My coaching program is built for first-time nonfiction authors who are at the start of the process and want guidance with their idea, outline, structure, and writing goals. If you’re not sure whether coaching is the right fit, that’s exactly what the free strategy session is for. We’ll look at where you are and figure out which kind of support makes the most sense for you.

Apply for a Free Strategy Session

If you’d like to see the whole journey from idea to finished book in one place, my complete beginner’s guide on how to write a nonfiction book lays out every step in order.

Watch: How Long Does It Really Take to Write a Book?

I recorded this video a few years ago, so a couple of details have changed. I’ve now been coaching for more than 18 years, and today I work exclusively with nonfiction authors. The advice about setting a realistic deadline and weekly writing goals is still exactly what I recommend.

Hi YouTube! Author Stefanie Newell and this is The Life Of A Writer channel.

Today’s video – How long does it really take to write a book? So if you want to connect with readers and sell more books, make sure to subscribe and get new content to your inbox every Tuesday. But in this video, I’m going to be sharing how long it takes realistically to write your very first book?

Down in the comment section below. Share with me how long you’ve been writing your book?

So if you’re a first-time writer you’ve likely Googled the words, “How long does it take to write a book?” And it’s a great question and one that I hope to answer in today’s video, but I also want to set realistic expectations because it’s almost impossible to tell someone how long it will take for them to write a book.

So I’ve been on different websites and different blogs, I’ve seen people say that it can take 30 days, 60 days, 6 months, 1 year and obviously there are some people that are able to do it within 30 days. And some people that are able to do it within 60 days. But realistically how long does it take in order to write a book?

So as many of you guys know I’ve been a writing coach since ‘08, so I’m going on 10 years (actually I just had my anniversary so it’s been 10 years a couple of weeks ago) and I have in my experience found that it takes on average about one year in order for people to write a book. So that’s not to say that some clients weren’t able to do it quicker, because I definitely had clients that were able to write books within two months.

But let me explain how and why that happens in certain situations. So obviously we all have different responsibilities. So some of us have full-time jobs, some of us have (you know) more than one child, we have families, we have a lot going on and because of that, all those different things are going to also affect how long it takes for us to write a book.

For example, the genre that we’re writing in… So if we’re writing in a genre where it requires us to do a lot of research those people are going to spend a great deal of time doing the research for their book. And that research process may take a little bit longer than, let’s say, for someone that’s writing a romance and they have their plot all worked out. So with that being said, in my experience it takes about one year for my clients to write their first books.

Now keep in mind it does get easier! So you have to remember that initially you’re gonna learn so many different things and that learning process is going to slow down your writing a little bit. So for example, if you’re writing fiction, a fiction writer is going to have to learn how to describe their characters, they’re gonna have to learn point of view, they’re gonna have to learn how to develop their plot and all of those different things.

Because it’s your first time doing it it’s going to take time, so that’s the reason why you need to first start off with setting a realistic deadline. So if you set a deadline like six months or three months and you have to learn all these different things, you’re gonna feel discouraged and in a lot of cases when you feel discouraged like that it causes you to quit. So I would encourage you to set weekly writing goals.

So for example, let’s say that your writing goal for the week is 5,000 words… if you’re able to get that all in one day – perfect! But if you need to get it over the course of three or four days, then that’s fine as well and that way in setting (again) realistic writing goals you’re able to write without the pressure of performing.

And I find with my clients that works a lot easier.

So you first need to figure out what the word count goal is for your entire book and as I told you guys in previous videos in order to figure that out you need to do a search of your genre.

So for example ‘romance word count’ figure out what it is. I’m pretty sure that the word count is gonna come up as eighty thousand words and you need to figure out, okay if I’m writing 80,000 thousand words total and I have one year in order to hit this goal, how many words do I need to write on a weekly basis or on a monthly basis in order to hit my goal?

Now with that being said there’s other things to consider. Again there’s research that you have to consider.

There’s the fact that it’s just a first draft!

We never publish our first drafts! We only publish final drafts, so give yourself some time to be able to write the second draft or third draft if need be.

If you want to learn how to connect with readers and sell more books, make sure to subscribe! But in the meantime check out my playlist  – How To Write A Book For Beginners.

As always all of my social media links will be in the description box below if you’re looking to hire me as your writing coach, you will find that information there as well and I look forward to talking with you in my next video!

Grab the Free Author Checklist

Once you know your timeline, the next step is making sure you have everything in place before you start writing. My free Author Checklist walks you through what to have ready before you begin your nonfiction book, and each item works nicely as a task in your writing calendar.

Download the Free Author Checklist

How long have you been working on your book so far? Share it in the comments. I read every one, and I’d love to hear where you are.

For more videos like this one, subscribe to my YouTube channel, The Life Of A Writer.