Most relatively smart people can develop an engaging a course in miracles style and find their authentic voice as a writer by learning a few important skills with the help of a writing coach or editor. The only reasons to hire a ghostwriter is if you’ve gotten solid expert help and you still can’t write or you just don’t have the time.
This person didn’t have much time. His question was critical. Could he find the time to write his book? It can take years to write a book and I know people who’ve written books in a matter of weeks. In my book writing classes, some students have a first draft within eight or ten weeks. Some never finish at all; others can take months to write their book.
Writing a book as quickly as eight weeks assumes that either you don’t need to do much research for the book, or you write your first draft without doing much research and then you do the research afterward (or have someone else do some of the research for you).
You’ll write faster (and you’ll write a better book) if you spend time before the writing to clarify your goals in writing a book, the audience or market for the book, the book concept, including features, tone, how the book fits in with what’s currently out there, and the outline of your book.
How fast you write a book also depends on how much time you commit per week. However, just because you devote yourself full time to writing doesn’t mean you’ll have your book any sooner than someone who has a full time job. Sometimes the people with demanding jobs are the best at making the most of the 30 or 90 minutes a day they devote to writing a book.
