What is the perfect length for an eBook?

esteban123

Honestly I have never tried to make an eBook since I mainly read some of them most of the time, but mostly eBooks are very long enough to give entertainment and convenience from readers as what I have observe t some eBooks. I think it only depends on our preferred audience since they will really tell a lot from it because for me I really don't have any ideal length as long as I am enjoying what I am reading

8 years ago

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stbrians

Length will always depenr on many factors. I have no problem as long as the book is enjoyable, entertaining and educative

8 years ago

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Jeane

Fact is people have a shorter attention span these days. There is so much interesting information on the net that the most someone will give anything (except social media maybe) is maybe a few hours at most. This probably is the reason why many people prefer short reads nowadays. There are lots of other things they have do: watch videos, chat with friends, play a game, etc.

My question is, what is the perfect length for an eBook?

Anything that can be read in one sitting or takes less than six hours to read from cover to cover. Just my two cents.

8 years ago

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amelia88

I agree with this too. Today's pace of life is so busy that many of us just don't have the time to read large texts like we once did - or get distracted part way through and never end up finishing it.

For those reasons I think shorter is better - the one sitting readability rule that you mentioned is a great one.

8 years ago

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katarinamurtin

Yes, but don't cut out interesting parts just because they're unnecessary. before cutting it, read it, and then think what would you change , change it and review it. Then publish I guess What is the perfect length for an eBook?

What is the perfect length for an eBook?

Good luck!

8 years ago

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stormbreaker10

Its really better and this qoute of einstein is one of my favorites "if you dont explain shortly then you dont really understand.

8 years ago

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theresajane

You have a point. People nowadays are more into internet and every platform there is online. So, reading will really bore most people and might want to switch to social media in an instant.

8 years ago

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Jelineex

Social Media are more interesting than e-books because it's more informative and intriguing. It has the most advance and exciting topic. The fun and excitement are limitless.There is so much to learn in internet especially in social media.

8 years ago

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HappyLady

That's interesting. It does seem like eBooks need to be shorter than those we put into print. I suppose online reading of any kind is a bit like looking at a website. In many ways, you just presented the argument for retaining a love of print books.

8 years ago

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ajahcuizon

I agree. They tend to prefer shorter reading materials but they spend too much time on social media. I hope that they can realize that reading can give us more knowledge than scrolling up and down through social media.

8 years ago

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stbrians

You have answered the question. You read it from cover to cover in one sitting

8 years ago

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Kakashi2020

I agree completely in that people nowadays have very short attention span and can get easily side tracked. That's why short articles have more views than long ones. Unlike in the pre computer and smartphone days, there's a lot of idle time for people to read long books. Nowadays most people prefer watching movies than reading.

8 years ago

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Kakashi2020

That's also my sentiments, due to present day pressures of life, the internet and all the tech around, there's no such thing as idle time nowadays. It's best to make short ebooks that can be finished in one reading session because often than not, a person loses interest in reading long ebooks.

8 years ago

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Bravosi

Hey there!
I'd say something that requires you less than 10 hours to read, maybe even less. The problem is, we people became laze, we crave for question and quick events. Our schedules are booming. That's why people don't engage in something overwhelming anymore, sadly.

8 years ago

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Kakashi2020

I'm all for short books which can be fully read in an hour or two or it can even be less than that. In this fast paced world it's so hard to find some idle time to read very long books.

8 years ago

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Franzel2oo

Reading is one thing people keep doing less of, and then some more. But there are those who will read your book to the end, as long as the subject interests them. So do what you must. Write how you must, but make sure you only write what your book needs to work. It is true that in writing, less is more. So use this golden rule to guide how long your ebooks run. If it's not necessay for your book, my advice is to cut it out.

8 years ago

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knnon

Is there even such a thing as a perfect length for a book? On an average book it usually consists of 200,000 words or less depending on the category of the book. But I guess it would depend on the writer as some eBooks could sometimes be the same length as a full length book. If you feel that it is long enough, then I guess maybe you can trim it a bit or you can just release it in sequels. As long as the idea of the story is in the book I don't think length would matter that much.

8 years ago

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Kakashi2020

I like short books to read, because I don't have any time to spare in reading full lenght books. I want something quick to read which is packed with interesting facts and knowledge.

8 years ago

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theresajane

In my own opinion, my preferred books/e-books are 300 pages long. If it were exceeds to like 400 and up, I start to get tired and take a very long break in reading. The general public don't really want a very long story because they easily lose interest, given that there are a lot of forms of entertainment nowadays, they might want to leave reading for a while. I suggest that, if you cannot cut your scenes, at least, make a second book. Make it a series, haha.

8 years ago

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stbrians

Being creative is what you suggest here. Be creative on the subject, number of pages, and how you want the ebook to be. Will the publishing site have a say in the length?

8 years ago

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Jeane

Most publishers don't dictate to writers how long the books they write should be. For example if you are writing a romance book, there's an average length that publishers will prefer. Not that they won't publish something slightly shorter or longer.

Ebooks are quite different. They can be virtually any length but there's a minimum word length imposed by some marketplaces because people previously could publish a 3 or 4 page "ebook" which really enraged customers when they realized they'd been duped.

8 years ago

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stbrians

Quite good here. How can a person write an ebook of such few words? Even our replies here are not that short.

8 years ago

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Kakashi2020

An eBook that is between 6-10 pages with 250-300 words per page with illustration s and graphics could easily be read in one sitting.

8 years ago

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Barida

That is the thing as trying to write things that will make people read and not get tired is the goal. I believe that keeping it at 300 pages is always something that is nice to do as it helps one to understand a lot of things with e-book making.

8 years ago

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Kakashi2020

In my opinion 300 pages is quite long. Even I would lose interest reading such a long eBook. It's better to keep it short so that it could be read in an hour.

8 years ago

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Jelineex

I think it depends on a writer's decision whether to make it long or short. People who loves to read will always enjoy and don't care about the length of content. A reader will always find time to read on any interesting and useful article.

8 years ago

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stbrians

Exactly! If it is enjoyable you want it to last forever. The right number of pages depend on the subject, the writer and what he thinks is right for the readers.

8 years ago

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theresajane

I agree with you. There will always be readers who find a very short e-book boring and there are other readers too who find a long E-book tiring. It really depends

8 years ago

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amelia88

That’s true - I guess everyone’s preferences are different and it’s best to just really stay true to you and your content. Changing things up too much to meet a certain length may see you not producing the best content you can.

8 years ago

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Jelineex

I agree with you. A writer write base on his experience, thoughts/ideas, emotions and inspiration. There maybe some suggestion but the decision is still with the writer.It's best to consider quality and interesting content than minding the size. Besides, whether long or short, we can't always please everyone. There will always be comment/reaction to everything we do. So, might as well do what we love to do.

8 years ago

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Kakashi2020

You're right, but the thing is studies show that the longer the content, the fewer people read it and the shorter the content, the more readers it gets.

8 years ago

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Kakashi2020

It really depends on your topic. But for me with photos or illustrations or graphics per page. A good eBook should have between 7-14 pages with about 200-300 words per page max. So that's like 1400 words to 2800 words per eBook.

8 years ago

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stbrians

7-14 pages seems to be a small ebook. Yet there is no problem. It is you who knows when your ebook should begin and stop.

8 years ago

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stbrians

I read an Ebook with 75 pages. I read another with 275 pages. A page carries about 250 words. In other words, there is no specific length of an ebook

8 years ago

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Martinsx1

Exactly! It's more of trying to get your message across through the use of the ebook no matter the number of pages it takes but efforts should be made to get the ebook not to too long in order for it not to be too boring to read.

8 years ago

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stbrians

Interesting books are very good for me. I hate boring ones.

8 years ago

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burgosmichael24

I agree with you. The length of your ebook varies depends on your topic, subject and genre. If your ebook is informative, you really need to put up the details. But if your ebook is more on stories, dividing them into book 1 and book 2 or more can be effective. Making your story short enough can give them the interest to read it and give them excitement for the next chapter.

8 years ago

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stbrians

I concur with you on this. It depends on many factors. Your material may run out. You might need to wind up to go on holiday.

8 years ago

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Martinsx1

Exactly! It's better in so many ways to have one's ebook to be brief and concise because it's going to be very easy to read unlike how difficult and hard it would be to most readers when it's too long.Keep it short, simple, concise and compact. It would do the ebook a lot of good.

8 years ago

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mark8625

That is right. It also depends to the the story you are creating too. But I prefer short e-book so that the reader will not get bored.

8 years ago

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theresajane

Yes, you are right. It really depends on the topic. Well, if you would want to write a novel, then you should consider the length of your e-book.

8 years ago

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Martinsx1

The most important thing about an ebook shouldn't be its length but how informative the piece of writing would be on any subject it's covering.

It would be a very big shame to have an ebook of 500 pages but still yet it's not very informative.

8 years ago

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Bravosi

I agree in part, the subject can indeed be thrilling and very well made, but nowadays people are too lazy. We need action, sadly. So a lengh of an eBook can scare people off, if it's too overwhelming...

8 years ago

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ajahcuizon

For me it depends on the topic you're writing on. If it is about a heavy topic that you would need to further explain your points. But if it is something that you just want to share things around or about a story that you would want to write on, you can go for atleast 6 or 7 chapters for your ebook.

8 years ago

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Corzhens

I am basing this comment on my style of reading that I don't read long articles much more e-books unless the subject is very interesting to me. But for an e-book to have more than 100 is pretty long already and I cannot say that I can finish reading it. My style in reading is to check the length even before I start reading so that I would quit when I think it is too long for my comfort and convenience.

8 years ago

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agbuyarashel

I think there's no specific length for a great ebook as long as the story is fantastic, length does not matter, others might want a longer if the it's really worth the time.
Actually I hate long stories but if the story is really great and interesting, it's worth my time then it's fine. Like for example I just tried reading The Mortal Instruments, I know it's a series and I don't have plan of reading the whole series, I'll just try if it's good but I ended up reading 6 books of it and still want more.

8 years ago

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esteban123

I think for me I preferred the shorter eBook because I can focus more on reading than the long eBooks especially if the particular topic suits with my interest. I am a busy person that is why I prefer the shorter ones since I want to come up with a conclusion from reading a certain eBook.

8 years ago

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allyn2017

Same here, it is really a bummer if you need to stop for a while and get back at it again after you did your work.

8 years ago

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NerdIndeed

I don't mind having an ebook being short as long as it's jam-packed with all the information that I need. That's the main reason why I'll buy it in the first place.

8 years ago

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allyn2017

I prefer shorter ebook, I am not a lazy reader but I don't have much time to read because I am busy, and I don't like pausing while reading. I want to read something from the start to the end without stopping.

8 years ago

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Kakashi2020

I completely agree with you. In the present world we live in, there's no idle time to spare. Everybody is busy doing something, and a long book won't fit in this setting. What does fit is a short entertaining or highly informative eBook.

8 years ago

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Judas2018

I don't think there's a 'perfect' length for an eBook. I think the book should be as long as the knowledge it provides. Once you've said or offered everything you want within the book, then it's time to wrap things up. If that takes slightly more pages than you wanted, then so be it.

8 years ago

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luv2xacosta

Your right people now prefer to read short stories compared to the long one. Also I think it depends when the content as well since people will read ebook if the topic is quite interesting and it really catches their attention. I've read some ebooks and most of it contains pages from 300, 400-600 pages.

8 years ago

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Kakashi2020

Having a 600 page eBook is I think not a good thing nowadays. Because people have no time to waste for a read that long. It's better to break it in volumes or sequels than publishing it one time.

8 years ago

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Kakashi2020

A good eBook is something you could finish in an hour or even less. It's because that's the only spare time people have nowadays. It should be short but packed with knowledge or it must be very interesting.

8 years ago

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Bravosi

Wow, I didn't even actually know that. Personally, I had eBooks which I could finish only in several days. I can't imagine how would it be to engage with such short eBook. Would the story be still good? Because a good story needs a good long development, lorewise.

8 years ago

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NerdIndeed

Now that's ideal. It's good to read while traveling or while waiting for your turn on long queues at banks, a time killer as they say.

8 years ago

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HappyLady

Thank you, everyone, for the replies to this question. What seems to come over clearly, is how many people prefer an eBook to be shorter. I have a book of 300 pages I think will now get chopped up into a series. It is interesting how different the process is from writing for a print book. It seems as if what we do with eBooks is in effect, treat them a bit like a long website. I wonder if anyone has done research on the differences?

8 years ago

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romyter013

I guess I really don't care like how long the pages will be as long the story is so interesting, I would still read it and make time to it. Though for some, they make it shorter, because they still wanna give it a try that people will read it and it wont take too much of their time if ever they finished it.

8 years ago

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DenisP

Well it’s going to depend on the kind of book you’ve written. There are certain conventional standards that apply to paperback books, and those standards don’t really change when transitioning to a digital format. I’m not going to tell you how many pages it should be, since that is going to depend on formatting and other dimensions, but rather how many words a typical book has.

Most children’s books have around 13,000 words, self-help books usually have around 50,000 words, your typical novel has between 60,000 and 80,000 words, and some novels (such as thriller and mystery novels) go upwards of 100,000 words.

There are obvious exceptions where some writer’s have gone above and beyond, but that isn’t always a good thing. I read A Dance with Dragons by George R.R Martin which had 415,000 words, and it really dragged on at certain points, enough for me to think about quitting reading it.

8 years ago

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NerdIndeed

It depends on the ebook if it's a love story, the longer, the better. However, if it's educational, make sure to make it only about eight chapters and focus on good examples and aspects that matter. I've read one ebook before where it doesn't explain anything as it only shares experience from others. It became annoying to read.

8 years ago

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mark8625

Length should not be too long and too short. It should be enough to the readers the medium length of the e-book so that they will not be bore in reading it.

8 years ago

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jaymish3

I think it depends on the niche/topics.I don't think that there is a recommended length. In my opinion, the longer the better. I think that people will feel that they are getting alot of money and their money's worth. However I think that you have to be careful to make your book readable. You need to make sure that your book is divided into sections an into chapters. A good example is books like by Tim Ferris that are really long and have so much information on personal development.However he has structured them in such a way that they can be used as a reference guide and can be read at once or can be read everyday.

8 years ago

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gutzman

I think there is no specific perfect length for an eBook but yes I agree that most people would not like to read a very lengthy one. If it is lengthy though as long as it is very entertaining or have a lot of interesting facts, I think I would still read the very last bit of it. You just have to keep on getting or sustaining the reader's attention.

8 years ago

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What is the perfect length for an eBook?

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