By using an AI story generation tool, you can write a book in around seven days. Surprised? Usually, it can take months or years just to finish the first draft of a book. It can be challenging, especially when you’re writing a book for the first time. 

Fortunately, there are many different ways through which you can speed up the writing process. First, let’s get a little more specific about how long it takes to write your first book.

How long does it take to write your first book

The answer to these questions depends on several factors. In general, if you’re working consistently on your book, it can take anywhere between six months and a year to write the first book.  

However, how long it takes to write your first book will depend on:

• How consistently you write: Whether you’re regularly working on your book or taking breaks in between
• Your writing experience: For how long you’re writing before you started working on your book
• Whether you’ve created an outline: If you’ve created an outline before you started working on your book
• If you’ve identified your main message and target audience: That’s an important part – before writing the book, you need to figure out who is your target audience and what core message you want to give through your book. Identifying both the aspects is important to set the tone and direction for your book
• Your editing skills: How good are your editing skills also helps in speeding up the process
• If you have outside help (like editors or writing coaches): If you’re using any editors or writing coaches to help you with your writing process, using them can prove to be a big help, especially when you’re stuck or have writer’s block. They can guide you throughout the process, solve your doubts and overall improve your writing work.

How long does it take to write and publish a book?

On average, you can write a draft in anywhere between six months to a year. After you get your editor, go through several rounds of self-editing, get feedback from beta-readers and write a second and third draft, you can publish your book. There are two routes to publish your book, and the timeline varies depending upon the route you select.

Routes of publishing a book:

• Traditional publishing: Find a literary agent, and they will find the right publishing house for your book. The process can take six to eighteen months.
• Self-publishing: You can publish the book by yourself. Once your book is edited and formatted, you can publish the ebook within 24 hours and the print version takes up to 48 hours.

Depending upon how long you want to wait to publish your book and whether or not you manage to get a literary agent. It can take months to find a good publishing house for your book. 

Otherwise, you can adopt the self-publishing route, which is quite popular among writers. Here, you can control the whole process and choose to publish the book whenever you want.

How to speed up the book writing process

There are different strategies you can adopt to speed up your book writing process. This can help you to develop an efficient and consistent writing process that will make your writing session as smooth as possible.

Get clear on your book’s main thesis

Before you start putting your thoughts into words, consider the core message you want your readers to take after they finish reading the book. Whatever message you select will set the direction for your book.

So, think hard about the main message. Sometimes, it can take days. Other times you can get the message within minutes. Don’t rush the process. Having a main message will help you to write faster and in one direction.  

Create an outline

After you decide on the main message for your book, the next step is to create an outline. It doesn’t have to be well-planned or too detailed. But it lets you know how long your book will be, what things you will include in it, and an overall view of your book. It gives you a rough idea of everything you want to include in the book. 

A good outline helps you: 

• Write faster
• Have an organized framework to work on
• Cut down the research time
• Eliminate writer block

To create an outline, you can:

• Start with a one-line idea or core message of the book. And expand based on your idea
• Make sure to include 5W + H (Who, What, When, Why, Where, and How) to figure out the details
• Write down the book's main points and add any specific details 
• Use an outline template to help you with the process

Carve out a chunk of time to write every day

Being consistent and writing daily does help in speeding up the process. Make it a daily habit of setting aside some time – 25 minutes or an hour to work on your book. 

You can adjust the goals depending upon your workload but make sure to write every day, even if it's just a few words. 

Aside from setting time goals, you can also set daily word count – whatever works for you. The idea is to get the first draft done.  

Also, you can set a daily/weekly goal and create a writing plan to speed up your book writing process. For example, you can set a goal to write 500 words daily through which you can complete the first draft in about six months.

Time yourself

Find out how long you’re taking up to write 500 words. Then, try to finish those 500 words in that time. Sometimes, it can take more time to write down the words. But if you work on it daily and follow a daily writing schedule, then, with enough practice, you can write faster in no time.

Find someone that can keep you accountable

Finding an accountability buddy is the best way to help you write faster. There are many benefits of having an accountability partner:

• Keep each other accountable to meet the goals
• Do writing sprints together
• Talk out different ways to avoid writer’s block
• Cheer each other up when one of you is feeling down
• Encourage and celebrate wins together

Overall, having an accountability partner helps you to reach goals faster. You can focus on your work and track your goals as you progress together.

How Jasper makes the book writing process faster

Another way to speed up your writing process is to use AI writing software. Using an AI writing tool not only cuts down your writing time, but you can write a book within days regardless of your experience or expertise. 

To help you with the process, you can use the Jasper AI tool. Many features of the tool can prompt you to write faster and create a high-quality book in a short period of time. 

Jasper AI offers many templates that you can use to generate your next few hundred words. They are especially useful if there’s writer’s block, which will happen. You can use Jasper to generate fresh written content for your book and edit/rearrange it to fit the tone and style of your writing.

• Jasper’s paragraph generator
• Text summarizer 
• Creative story templates  

By using the Boss mode and long-form assistant template, you can write a sentence or two, and Jasper will handle the rest. The blog conclusion, outline, and intro template can also prove useful when you need to write an intro and conclusion for every chapter of your book.

Write your first book with the help of artificial intelligence

Now that you know how long it takes to write and publish a book, there’s no stopping  getting your book published. With the right planning and tools, you can complete your book in no time. In your writing journey, Jasper can help you tackle writer's block, write introductions, outlines, or even the crux of the book. Learn more on how you can use Jasper AI to write your book in our bootcamp.