Ideal length of an E book

Baggie, I think the ideal length will depend a lot on the content. I started writing an e-book a while back and hit around 50 pages before I started to fill it up with additional advice and other things that I think were pertinent. It is almost done, but I think it will probably be around 60+ pages when done and very useful to its target audience. I think that is the key: is there enough information targeted at a specific group to make it truly useful? Could someone walk away after reading that and know how to do something they could not before? If so, then I think the page count is sufficient. If not, or if the book leaves too many questions unanswered, then it probably needs to be longer.

There's no such thing on either account. A ebook and a sales letter should both be long enough to say everything you need to say, but no longer.

The value isn't in the information quantity, it's in the information quality.

I agree with Dennis above.

You need to say all that you need to say in both cases.
A sales letter is supposed answer every objection that a prospect may have and an ebook should also cover everything that needs to be covered i relation to the target market.

While at the same time, an IM book about advanced SEO should not spend a paragraph explaining what an anchor text is. So the length should always take into account who the audience is.

This post is already too long considering what the question was so I will stop here.

theres no limit for that, as long as you wanna share knowledge and that...just put the necessary information...

I think the ideal ebook length can depend on the price you put on....but the quality is most important. Too many hundred-paged IM ebooks today which half pages alone is fluff and filler. But as rypher21 said, there's no certain limit.

Just adding my 2c to the discussion.

While many people are advocating the no-fluff approach, it is important to realize that you still need to include a full explanation of your method/process.

I have read lots of WSO's recently, that proclaim themselves no fluff but actually require you to read the writers mind. Give the necessary information as quickly as possible, but then explain it in detail. I am not advising people to pad their ebooks out, just to make sure a confused reader can understand what to do, and why it works.

I bought three so called no-fluff reports this week, and while one of the vendors is on my list of people to watch for future products, the other two have been privately labeled as lazy SOB's by me. Of the three reports two were not actionable through lack of basic information.

In summary: Write a no-fluff report and I will be happy upon purchase, but if you think no-fluff means leaving out necessary information you are in for a rude awakening.

Cheers,
Colin Palfrey

Write until you've solved the person's problem.

My best Adsense page is 200 words long which makes fools of all the folk who say you should write 1000 words.

Dennis is correct, but don't forget that testing length of copy will give you the correct answer for you personally.

Roy

Had a friend who sold a 4 page e-book for roughly 100 bucks. It was explaining how to create LLC's or something like that. He had a 100% customer satisfaction rate. There are no recipes here.

Best regards,
George

generally free report 30 pages, product ==> 120 pages

Depends how much content and valuable information you are providing on the subject topic I suppose in most cases. There would be no perfect / ideal formula for page length. As long as you are providing value take as little or as many pages as you need.

I think a dollar a page is a good rule. Still, the value has to be on every page, and not too many screenshots.

But it is also the value of the information. I would much rather have a 5 page report if I get the same information in a 50 page. I have better things to do than to read.

I have read some ebook and most of them are of 60 odd pages. Personally i feel this number is too long for an Ebook. Anything around 30-40 pages can make a decent ebook and readers will not loose the interest as well.

There is no such number of pages required to come up with a Ebook, just cover up everything you need say and that'll be it the main thing is stickability of your Ebook contents.

There is no ideal lenght, as long as you say everything you must say.

As someone who loves to read I initially assumed that longer ebooks would be more valued and easier to sell...turns out not to be true, at least in my case.

I've taken 60page+ books and edited them down to 40 pages and even less and sales have improved. Almost ANY ebook can be condensed by a good editor and not lose it's meaning. Todays readers seem to generally be looking for shorter, not longer.
_____
Bruce