According to a couple of other authors I’ve heard talk about publishing time, they both said it normally takes about a year between the time they finish a novel and when the novel is released. (One of those authors was Bernedict Jacka and I can’t remember who the second one was.)
However, both of these authors talked about the amount of time they often need for rewrites and the time it takes the publisher to edit and for the author to recheck their work and re-check the edits. Jim does a lot of pre-editing of his own before he turns a manuscript in, so his books can sometimes be released in a much shorter time frame.
There is also the publisher’s schedule to consider. Right now, I would bet hard money that ROC Books; the part of Penguin that publishes The Dresden Files, already has their end of year / Christmas releases planned, in the pipeline and most likely there isn’t any way they can work Twelve Months into that time frame.
After that, my understanding of the major book publisher’s scheduling is sketchy at best. Someone who worked in that business once explained it to me, but that was a long time ago. I know the publishers have different release patterns for different seasons and they like to release known best selling author’s new books at times when they can get the most bang for their buck, but that is about it.
My guess is we could get Twelve Months in our hands or on our tablets by late Spring. So sometime in May / June. Then again, it might not be released until Fall 2025. There is no way for us to know until TM is finished, sent in and the publisher gives us a release date.
I council patience and hope Jim is correct about the time he needs to finish. On Jim’s website that is titled Upcoming Works, it says he is 78% finished. That percentage is probably based on the estimated total word count Jim came up with for Twelve Months before he started writing the novel.
