When I first started the Knocked Up Abroad series, I figured it would take me about 4-6 months to self-publish the first book.
Without any experience, I knew I was going to have to learn the process, pad in a bit of extra time for mistakes, and hope for the best.
I knew some friends who had self-published their books but they couldn’t really give me a sense of how long it would take me to do the same. One friend took over a year while the other publishes like a machine and produces five e-books a year.
I have no idea how long it will take you to self-publish your book since there are so many factors but here is a timeline of what I experienced while publishing my books.
Book #1 Timeline
Page count: 276
Word count: 100K
- June 2015—Call for submissions
- October 1, 2015—Final drafts
- October 23, 2015—Sent manuscript to beta readers
- November 12, 2015—Sent manuscript to editor
- Dec 7, 2015—Second round of edits from editor
- January 7, 2015—Final manuscript received from editor
- January 7-12, 2015—Interior typesetting
- January 14, 2016—Uploaded manuscript to Kindle Direct Publishing for pre-orders
- January 26, 2016—E-book publication date
- January 28, 2016—Paperback publication date
All in all, the entire process took a solid seven months of work and collaboration and a full four months of work after the manuscript content was finalized.
Now, one might think that with experience, the timeline for all subsequent books would be faster but that was not exactly the case.
For Knocked Up Abroad Again, I did things slightly differently, which added to the timeline. I wasn’t quite happy with my gutter depth in Knocked Up Abroad, so I changed that for the second book, which required ordering two proofs from the printer (#learningpains).
Also, rather than fund the book from my personal bank account, I took on the surprisingly monumental task of using Kickstarter to fund the project.
We were successful but like all fundraising efforts, it required a tremendous amount of time and energy to pull off. It also added 60 days to the publishing timeline.
Book #2 Timeline
Page count: 314
Word count: 85k
- March-May, 2016—Call for submissions
- July 2016—Final drafts from contributors
- September 3, 2016—Sent manuscript to editor
- September 19-October 19, 2016—Kickstarter campaign activities
- October 31, 2016—Final manuscript back from editor
- October 31-Nov 2, 2016—Interior typesetting
- November 15, 2016—Paperback and e-book publication date
This book took a solid nine months of effort and the Kickstarter campaign really kicked up the stress level quite a bit but overall, it was a great experience.
So, there you have it—two different books and two different experiences. You can see that not all self-publishing projects are the same and that you might take on new challenges or do things differently as you become more experienced that will increase your timeline.
If you’ve self-published before, let me know in the comments below how long it took you to go through the process.
Wouldn’t it be even easier if you could bypass a lot of silly mistakes? If someone handed you a step-by-step guide to the self-publishing process and answered your questions if you ran into issues?
How much stress could you avoid if you had a smooth self-publishing experience? If that sounds like a good plan to you, then check out the Beginner’s Guide to Self-Publishing course here.