how long does it take to write a book?

How long does it take to write a book?

This question reminds me of a story about Albert Einstein. When Einstein was asked to give a simple version of the theory of relativity, he said to have said, “If you put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, it feels like an hour. But if you spend an hour with a pretty girl, it seems like a minute.”

Einstein was by all accounts a bit of a rascal.

Time goes at different speeds when you’re writing your book, too.

• You’ve been accumulating the wisdom for years, without even noticing—but you don’t count that as “writing.”

• We’ll spend a couple of hours talking about how to arrange the information in your book. It’ll go quickly for both of us because it’s an exciting stage.

• We’ll probably spend around 20 hours talking to me about your ideas. The time will go quickly for you because you’re completely familiar with what you’re saying. It goes slower for me because I have to concentrate really hard to ask any questions.

• I’ll spend maybe 100 hours or more writing a book based on our conversations. That would probably seem a lifetime to me. It doesn't seem long to me.

• The revisions process is relatively quick for you as you review the text and relatively slow for me as I work through any changes.

• The final read will whizz by for you because it's exciting but I'll find it quite slow because I know how much there is that I still may need to do.

Overall, I'll have spent far more time working on the book than you—but you’ve spent far more time gathering the wisdom and in deciding to share it with others. (Plus you’re paying me, which always helps makes my time go a bit quicker.)