When you work and play on the Web, you’re trained to expect everything fast. As I mentioned in this post about writer’s book contracts, the idea-to-bookstore process takes around two years.

That is, from the time you get an idea for a book, develop the idea, sell the book etc is around two years, minimum. It can take much longer — I’ve had agents who shopped around manuscripts for 18 months before getting a nibble from a publisher.

This may be about to change, for some books at least.

Tina Brown’s forming a new book imprint, called Beast Books, which will publish books by writers at The Daily Beast (blog) site.

Publishers want to make money, so I think we’ll see other publishers ramping up their schedules too.

The Daily Beast Seeks to Speed Up the Publishing Process for Books – NYTimes.com reports:

“On a typical publishing schedule, a writer may take a year or more to deliver a manuscript, after which the publisher takes another nine months to a year to put finished books in stores. At Beast Books, writers would be expected to spend one to three months writing a book, and the publisher would take another month to produce an e-book edition.”

What does this mean for you as a writer? It means that you need to get your skates on, and develop good writing habits, so you can write more, and can write faster too, if you want to be published in the fast-forward years to come.

Want to make great money writing? Discover the secrets of high-selling, highly paid writers, for free. Each week, Angela Booth’s Fab Freelance Writing Ezine is delivered in easy-to-print PDF format.

Join the thousands of other writers who are using the information to change their lives. You’ll learn how to write, and how to sell. Angela’s been writing for 30 years, and shares her knowledge with you.

Do you want to write a book? Let’s look at three tips which will help you to success.

1. Write What You Know

“Write what you know” is time-honored advice which is given to many writers. Of course, you’re not limited to what you know from personal experience, you can do research.

However the closer your book is to your own experiences in life, the easier it will be to write, and the greater the likelihood that you will be published. Having experience in an area makes you credible to publishers.

This applies to fiction as well as nonfiction. For example, if you’re writing a novel about a medical examiner, then it’s advisable to get some experience in this area before you start writing about it.

Similarly, if you’re writing nonfiction, if you want to write about parenting it’s best to start out by being a parent — or at least an academic who’s done studies on parenting.

2. Write What People Want to Buy

Is your idea sales-worthy? It can be hard to estimate what will sell, because the books which are currently on the bestseller list were written 2 to 5 years ago. However, you can learn a lot from bestseller lists in general. Study the bestseller lists, and visit your local bookshop as often as you can.

Books which sell have a great deal in common: they’re written about topics that people care about. And again, this applies in both fiction and nonfiction.

Try using Google’s keyword research tool, to check how many searches there are on the topic of your book. If there are no searches, or just a meager four searches a month, this means that your topic isn’t of general interest, and it will be just about impossible to get publishers interested.

3. Sell Your Book Before You Write It

This tip applies only to nonfiction. If you’re writing a novel, you’ll have to complete your book before publishers will agree to give you a contract. (However, looking on bright side, if you do get a contract, it may well be a multi-book contract.)

If you’re writing nonfiction, write three chapters, and an outline of your book, and then try to sell it. Most nonfiction is sold on the basis of a proposal, which includes an overview of the book, a marketing plan, and several chapters and an outline.

Write more – become a pro writer

Yes, you can write more and become an expert writer – even if you’re a world-class procrastinator.

Did you know that when you write more, your writing improves? Many of my writing students experience this. They find that when they write more, writing is easier for them – they’re not dominated by their inner editor.

My new writing class, “Write More And Make More Money From Your Writing: Develop A Fast, Fun Productive Writing Process” is based on lessons I developed for my private coaching students to help them to write more, improve their writing, and make more money writing.

If you’re struggling with your writing, the class will help. The techniques you’ll learn in class with help you write fiction, nonfiction, and copy for business.

Discover how you can write more, improve your writing, and sell more of your writing to higher-paying markets.

Create the perfect writing business: become an ebook entrepreneur

Stop trading hours for money. You can remove the blocks on your income with my ebook-creators package. You discover my secrets, developing over years of writing and selling information products.

Ebooks and other information products are HOT. If you can write, you’re golden. Get started creating your ebook empire today.

You’re writing a book. It takes time — often time that you could be spending doing something else.

So you want to know: where’s the money?

From idea to published book, calculate that the entire process will take around two years. That includes shopping around your book proposal, negotiating with a publisher, writing and rewriting (yes, there are ALWAYS rewrites), correcting the galley proofs, and on and on…

But once you’ve signed the contract, and the advance against royalties check is on its way, how long does it take?

I’ve had amazingly fast checks from publishers (“fast” meaning two months) and slow ones too, when the book was the the printers before I got the advance.

It depends on a lot of things: the publisher’s payment process, whether your editor decides to take a leave of absence before she signs off on the deal, but it always takes longer than you think it should.

As SlushPile.net » Calendar to a Book Deal reports:

“(it takes) ‘a lot longer than you think, and longer than they say,’ to receive the advance check. In my case, I was pretty pleased with the turnaround on the check. My agent did a good job of setting my expectations and the payment was actually received a little bit quicker than I thought. Once again, I’m sure this varies wildly from publisher to publisher, deal to deal.”

Want to make great money writing? Discover the secrets of high-selling, highly paid writers, for free. Each week, Angela Booth’s Fab Freelance Writing Ezine is delivered in easy-to-print PDF format.

Join the thousands of other writers who are using the information to change their lives. You’ll learn how to write, and how to sell. Angela’s been writing for 30 years, and shares her knowledge with you.