How long should it take for a ghostwriter to finish my book?

Timing on a writing project depends on many factors. First of all, what kind of workload is the writer already facing. Is he able to start right away? Will he work only on your project once started, or does he juggle multiple projects? Is this a full-time writer?

Also, what is YOUR timeline? A writer may be willing to speed up the project if you have a tight timeline, though costs may go up if you need a manuscript produced very rapidly.

Then, there is the question of YOU. How quickly will you look over chapters and ask for revisions? Do you mesh well with the writer -- in other words, do you see eye-to-eye about how the book should go, leading to fewer revisions?

The fact is, I have produced a short novel in about 2 weeks, and this book has had excellent reviews from its readers. (In other words, 2 weeks doesn’t have to equal trash.) Another book took me just over a year, including some major revisions we tackled after the first draft was finished -- these were based on a new approach the author decided to take.

In general, I think that having a first draft or even the final manuscript finished inside of 6 months is quite reasonable. I often allow for longer than that in my contracts because of all the unknowns and because I usually work on more than one project at once. But my clients have a lot to say on this point because I certainly want to make sure I'm meeting THEIR needs.

In the end, though, I think timing should be low down on the list of essentials, so long as it doesn’t become outrageous. The earlier qualities I said to watch for (marketing, quality of writing and writer, etc.) should guide your decision, and timing should be secondary, used to sort between multiple writers who you think are able to produce your book the way you want it.