Finished the Next Part of the Beer Book

I sent in my next 20k words to the publisher Friday. May not sound like a lot but let me break it down for you.

350 words per page. So that is about 57 pages. I had about 9 days to do it, so it was about 6.3 pages a day. When you are creating a non fiction book you must do research and so while a little over 6 pages may not seem like a lot there is time to research, and then create things in a logical order that fits with what the rest of the chapter and book is about. There are considerations like placement of the information, illustrations or graphics that may go along with it, and defining new words both in the text of the chapter and as a word to place in the glossary. I have to update the table of contents, edit, re edit, proof, re edit, write a little bit more and edit, re edit, re edit, proof, re edit. You get the point.

So I am left with at best creating 1 page per hour of solid submitable work. In between I have to eat, walk the dog, communicate with other human beings and do other things that life requires. I end up working between 10-12 hours a day. This is not all at once, it is broken up between 7:30 AM- 11:00 PM or later.

This is not a post to complain, rather it is a testimony of the reality of making a living as a writer.