Posted by savvywriter
May 18th, 2010 
3 Comments
What is the Right Number of Pages for an eBook?
I’ve been receiving questions about eBooks lately, specifically “how many pages are they?” When eBooks first came out, they were meant to give readers fast information. The introduction of the Kindle, iPhone, and other technologies like it means publishers offer digital downloads of books — they refer to these as eBooks. However, a true eBook was meant to be no more than 60 or 70 pages at the maximum. Most readers want to get in and get out!
Publishers offer digital or electronic downloads of books, but technically these are not “true” eBooks because they’re over 100 pages! These are simply electronic downloads. This may be confusing, but eBooks really were created to give readers “down and dirty” information in the shortest amount of time.
eBook Tip: You could include photos in your eBook to add the dynamics of it. Make sure you have the right to use the pictures. Copyrighting is a hot topic and you want to protect yourself. Make sure you have permission from the artist to use their photos. If you purchase royalty free stock photography, make sure you have permission to use the photos for commercial use.
eBook Tip #2: Pull out excerpts from your eBook and include them on the left hand side of the pages. This will break up the look of your eBook. You can also include quotes on the left hand side of the pages as well.
If you’re creating an “eBook” consider your target audience. Who are they? Will they read 100 pages or more electronically? Maybe? Maybe not? You may want to “test” the waters with an eBook that’s 60 pages and see how many readers download it. If you provide unique, useful content then you won’t have a problem.
If you’re creating an eBook, you may want to keep it under 60 pages. When you write your 400 page New York Times #1 Best Seller, it will be turned into a digital or electronic download for the iPhone, Kindle, and electronic gadgets like these. In the meantime, you may want to keep your eBooks as short as possible. In fact, some eBooks are less than 20 pages! Whatever you decide, make sure you provide readers with information that will be of use to them otherwise they’ll find someone else and consider them to be the expert. Good luck!
Rebecca
Have you created an eBook? How many pages is it? Share.
Tags: Freelance Writing
Posted under: Freelance Writers, Freelance Writing Comment (RSS) | Trackback
I’ve written five ebooks ranging from 13 pages, including cover and TOC, to 88 pages. I use plenty of photos. The longer ebooks also are availble as POD from the company I publish them with. I sell more ebooks than print books when there is a choice, probably because the ebooks are cheaper than POD.Plus you don’t have to pay shipping and handling charges.
Thanks for the comment! I think an eBook is it’s at your finger tips. However, some people (me) still prefer to hold a book and read it. Plus, you can make notes in the margin.
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