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The Basics of E-books

by little grey
18 replies
So many people have e-books on their sites. Just curious, how long does a good e-book have to be? With so many e-books I can't imagine they are as long as traditional books. What are people putting together? Is there a good/idea length for an e-book?
#basics #ebooks
  • Profile picture of the author Mark Singletary
    Page count doesn't matter as much as helping the customer. Some extremely profitable and successful traditional books are short, contrary to popular opinion.
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    • Profile picture of the author Birdi
      To be honest, it's not about the amount of pages in an ebook, its all about the value of information 'content' to the customer it is.

      If the information in the ebook holds alot of good solid value for the customer and it covers what the customer is looking for then you have a good ebook.

      remember it's not the "quantity but the quality" that matters.

      birdi
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      • Profile picture of the author mrsvirtualassistant
        There are no specific requirements regarding the length of an ebook. As long as you provide fresh information and promote your work, people will buy your ebook. Make sure you provide original content that offers value to your readers. Share your point of view and offer something that can't be found anywhere else.
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  • Profile picture of the author grimace_86
    I agree that there are no specific requirement regarding length, but from observation, I've seen a number of ebooks with 50+ pages.
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  • Profile picture of the author Trevor M
    The quality of the pages is much more important than the quantity of pages.

    I've bought 7 page e-books on this forum that were 100x better than most of the 50 - 70 page e-books I've purchased.

    Cut out the B.S and get straight to the point. People don't want their time wasted with crappy information that just fills up pages.

    - Trevor
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  • Profile picture of the author Exel
    The length of the book holds little relevance compared to the information and the presentation.

    Bigger doesn't mean better, besides the possibility of having much fluff content, sometimes
    if I see the book is too long (100s of pages) it turns me off from wanting to read it.
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  • Profile picture of the author anders3397
    The other thing to remember when writing an ebook is that you offer more value to the reader (most of the time) when you are solving a desperate problem they have. Providing the solution in as many pages as it takes (without the fluff) will raise the perception of your ebook much more than the length.
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  • Profile picture of the author Big Al
    I agree, like a $1000 eBook on how to become a millionaire is potentially a really good investment (in fact I think one still exists by Jim Straw).

    But I do think you have to take into consideration how to position your product so your readers appreciate the value. Say you were selling a fitness program via eBook for $97.

    You could compare and position that as being the hundreds of hours of personal training and providing ONLY the essential information without the pain, sweat and tears!

    Hundreds of hours of Personal Training would cost thousands of dollars, even a handful of personal training sessions would eclipse that $97 and help justify the price to both yourself and the potential buyers.

    And... er... you have to test the price. Your market may vote with their wallets so the sales may well tell you what's too cheap, too expensive and just right.
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  • Profile picture of the author Nikolas
    Quality is for sure better than quantity. With that said I think that the key is the information you have. I liked most 1-2 page ebooks with fresh information than others with literature

    Just my 2 cents
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  • Profile picture of the author michaeljcheney
    Size doesn't matter ;-) I've written 10 pages Ebooks that got rave reviews and also written a 50,000 word book that did equally as well.

    Focus on value, underpromising and overdelivering and finding out BEFORE you write it what people actually want to know about.

    Conduct a survey to find people's Top 10 Challenges in XYZ and then use that as the Chapters outline for your book.
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    • Profile picture of the author Paul Dunstan
      Originally Posted by michaeljcheney View Post

      Size doesn't matter ;-) I've written 10 pages Ebooks that got rave reviews and also written a 50,000 word book that did equally as well.

      Focus on value, underpromising and overdelivering and finding out BEFORE you write it what people actually want to know about.

      Conduct a survey to find people's Top 10 Challenges in XYZ and then use that as the Chapters outline for your book.
      Michael - clicked your signature. Love the offer - but there is no opt-in form!
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  • Profile picture of the author little grey
    Love all this advice. Thank you all.
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  • Profile picture of the author DoubleOhDave
    I think it depends on whether it's an "ebook" or a "book"

    is it a "how to" or other non-fiction - or a fiction book...

    These things all make a difference...

    ebooks are accepted to be relatively short (around 20,0000 words)
    as they are aimed at the short attention span "I want it now" people

    How-to books are much the same as people want to learn stuff fast without fluff

    Fiction is harder and as far as I have researched, needs 50k words plus..
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  • Profile picture of the author ryanoryan
    A well presented, well structured, well formatted ebook, with 10 pages of highly useful content, will always be more appreciated than 40 pages of poorly presented fluff and padding.

    My advice would be to put your time into the look and content, instead of concentrating on page numbers.

    Best of luck with your endevour.
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  • Profile picture of the author Paul Dunstan
    Bigger doesn't mean better. It is all about the quality. However - if you have great quality, then more of it is even better for your opt-in. Always over-deliver!

    Paul
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  • Profile picture of the author jis19992
    Ebooks don't need to be long but they must solve a problem. That's how you make ur product successful
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