I recently published my first book, albeit not fiction, it’s a book about riding instruction (there’s a link in my sig below if you care to see it).
I’ll tell you first hand there is a LOT LOT LOT of work that goes into it before it goes to the printer!! From the time I finally got it finished, it took me another 6 months of having others edit/proofread, and then all the time it took at the publisher to get the cover right, the inside, page numbers, etc etc etc…crazy.
There are so many things that go into publishing a book - and if you’re self publishing, it’s a LOT of work!! I went that route rather than going through a publisher - I’d rather have complete control over my works (at least for the time being). I’m currently in the process of producing my next book, hope to get it out by the end of this year. Hoping to pick up some awesome ideas here!!! Will maybe post a thread later on about what it’s about.
I’ve written several horse novels too, but haven’t put ANY time or effort into getting them published - I think they’d need more editing and changing than I’d be willing to do, since I wrote them about 12 years ago. 