Ebook file size: How big is too big?

8 replies
I just finished writing a rough draft of an Ebook that contained 50 photos. After I compiled it to an Amazon .mobi file, the total file size was 2.4 MB's. Do you think this is too big? Will this result in slow loading times that will annoy Kindle users?

If so, does anyone happen to know of a good photo compression program that will allow me to shrink the size of the photos without losing quality? (Note: All of my images are JPEG's).

Thanks!
#big #ebook #file #size #sizes
  • Profile picture of the author sqwm1im
    No, I don't think 2.4MB is too large. Most of the books I have published have been less than 1MB, but to be honest if you're including 50 photos then 2.4MB is quite small in my opinion! From a user perspective, most Kindle users will be downloading on WiFi, which basically means 2.4MB won't take long at all and shouldn't annoy anyone. Good luck!
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  • Profile picture of the author KenJ
    Hi James,

    I have a book of similar size and it hasn't created a problem. There is a point at which you might be charged a download fee, but I do not know what size file makes that kick in.

    KenJ
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    • Profile picture of the author James Liberty
      Originally Posted by KenJ View Post

      Hi James,

      I have a book of similar size and it hasn't created a problem. There is a point at which you might be charged a download fee, but I do not know what size file makes that kick in.

      KenJ
      Hmmm... I thought I read that Amazon charges a "delivery fee" to all writers, regardless of file size.
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  • Profile picture of the author KenJ
    Hmmm

    Now you got me worried. I thought there was a minimum charge applied to all books. Then an incremental scale of charges for larger files. I'll look it up.

    KenJ
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  • Profile picture of the author Slate Marketing
    The delivery fee is based on what royalty program you choose and on one plan, there is no delivery fee at all. We've got a free Kindle royalty calculator that you can use to help determine which is the most profitable royalty program to choose, based on your book file size and price etc.

    In terms of your file size, that is a good small size however, you should still optimize every image inside the book for the fastest load times anyway.
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  • Profile picture of the author Shannonn
    Banned
    I agree: this is not too big, especially if you have 50 photos. We have been accustomed to speedy services, but waiting a bit for an ebook to load won't kill anyone
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  • Profile picture of the author zenxseo
    "delivery fee" so nothing to worry about the file size but still if you want you can make it small using any free image editor and optimize images ,
    good luck for your business
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