Scientific vs. Fiction Publishing — The Same?

I mean this quite sincerely: Thank you, academia, for (mostly) preparing me for the agonizing pace of traditional publishing.

In science, ideas can develop quickly, but their execution is slow. A typical molecular biology project looks something like this: secure collaborators, write a grant, wait six months for a review/score, wait some more to (hopefully) receive the funds, order your research supplies, run experiments, run them again (and again…and again…), write and submit a manuscript, wait for revisions/feedback, implement said revisions/feedback, and then post a link to your socials when the paper goes live weeks-to-months later. In total, you’re looking at 18-24 months from opening a blank grant document to seeing experimental results in print.

I’d assumed this was as bad as it could get. That I’d run the longest race of project length and nothing would ever come close.

Well, I was wrong.

Enter, the world of fiction. I had a vague sense that things could take a while in traditional publishing, but I didn’t understand ALL THE HURDLES staged before the finish. Nor did I fully realize that each burst of forward movement would feel immense in the moment (I got an agent?!), but small in the grander scheme of things (now we’re going on…submission?).

Well, years later, I’ve learned the truth: if publishing scientific research is slow, then publishing a book is glacial. There are plenty of similarities in the early phases (e.g. grant proposal = query), but after acceptance of a manuscript, book publishing introduces its own extra laps: developmental edits, line edits, copy edits, cover feedback, and more! And naturally, each of these extra steps takes time, extending the timeline for a book out even longer.

I wrote the first outline of my debut novel in May 2022, submitted my first query in Dec 2023, secured representation in March 2025, and my tentative publication date is July 2026. That’s over 4 years from frantically scribbling down the idea to publication!

Truly, if scientific publishing is a marathon, then traditional publishing is a 50-mile ultra.

Luckily, they both have finish lines.