Petra...both are long. It took me large parts of 6 or 8 months to write the Santa Monica fault paper...and now I may need the equivalent of a month full time to revise it. But, this is a long comprehensive paper and I was having trouble with it so it went through 4 drafts before I even submitted it. Let's say I resubmit it in October (I plan on that). If that is accepted, it could easily be a year before it is published....The next papers will be simpler but it is a good bet that it will be 3 months full time to get these ready (each) for submission. This tends to be time that I am not paid for...
so, all in all I am nuts to be doing this but it still may be a little better than the alternatives as I lack marketable skills...spent all my time doing this when I could have been learning a trade.

other extreme:
My 300 word Letter (comment)to GSA Today on the North Anatolia fault appeared 3 months after I started writing it.

Chris