The Hub

Thanks! And thanks for the merit badge :D
Book 1 has taken 2.5 years from idea to publication, but I really didn't know what I was doing at the start. I got a vague story concept in late 2015, posted a few of the early chapters here in spring 2016. (They were truly horrible, but of course I didn't realise that at the time). Got the full first draft finished in November 2016 - I remember staying up until 2am on a work night because the ending DEMANDED to be written.
It then took several rounds of critiques and revisions until I had something quite polished (imo) which I started querying around October 2017. Out of 5 queries, I got 2 personalised rejections and a form rejection (months later), but I'd already decided that self-publishing would work better for me. Not hanging around waiting for other people was a big plus.
I commissioned cover art, which took a few weeks of back and forth while I was getting my head round formatting on KDP and D2D. I was too cheap to pay for editing and proofreading - time will tell whether I've made a false economy.
Meanwhile... I'd outlined Book 2 in the trilogy in November/December 2016. I posted Book 2's first draft for critique April-August 2017 and I'm now happy with my revisions. With Book 1 out of the way, I can concentrate on going through the publishing process with Book 2.
Book 3 has an early draft fully written, but it'll take several months to knock it into shape. I'm looking forward to finishing it so I can start working on a new (writing) project.
This writing business gets addictive, doesn't it? I do have a full-time busy day job, so the writing needs to be fitted around that.