Ebook Length Guide: How Long Should Your Ebook Be and Why

As an online course creator, you may wonder how long should your ebook be? It is one of the common questions any course creators may have in their minds. So remember you are not alone.

Read our tips on ebook length and reasons that will help you to structure your ebook.

However, what do you think as a knowledge entrepreneur does really ebook word count matter? Length matters negligibly for ebooks more than it does for print books. But there are some good lengths and norms that are still a concern. Ebooks are more concise than print books. As more ebooks have become trendy so, readers expect them to cost less than print books.

Well, today in this blog we will understand how long should your ebook be and the three different forms of ebooks, that will help you decide which type of ebook you should publish to grab the attention of your audiences.

Let us dive into the point.

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How long should your ebook be

Here we are on the go the answer to the multibillionaire question – what length is the right one for an ebook?

You want to tell your story or share your knowledge in as many words as you can. There is no limit to it. However, roughly an ebook could be around 3,000 words or as long as a full-length book and printed books.

But to be more precise, here we will talk about the three ideal lengths of an ebook that will help you to take your decision for your audiences.

These are the three ideal ebook lengths.

1. Short sized ebooks

If you’re putting your ebook for the first time and want to test your audience’s reactions, then short ebooks are a wonderful way to get started. Short ebook lengths are from just a few pages to several thousand words. Therefore, we call short ebooks anywhere between a few pages to 5,000 words. The reason is short ebook types are popular and powerful in today’s digital marketing. They help a creator to make excellent lead magnets. You can give your short ebook as a free giveaway and in exchange, you can ask your target audience their email. It is one of the best and most effective ways to build your email list.

Whereas when the length is considered marketers claim that short-form ebooks work better than long-form. Making a short ebook is an outstanding choice for e-readers who want to limit shorter attention spans and know something valuable on your topic for free. If you don’t want to give your short book away as a freebie you can also charge your ebook. Use this strategy if you have a good amount of audiences on your list who are ready to buy your ebook at any price. However, this is not a good idea for a budding online course creator, therefore if you are new to this field first have a clear mindset. Understand, nurture, build trust and then plan your ebook for your audiences. We hope this has given you some idea of how long should your ebook be.

2. Medium-sized ebooks

Here comes the medium-sized ebook. Whereas, if you want to sell a short story, children’s book, or non-fiction book then is this the great ebook format to think of. The medium-length ebooks are a genuine fit for increasing or replacing a print book version. Therefore, a mid-sized ebook range falls between 5,000 and 20,000 words. But it can vary from creator to creator.

However, today the book industry is moving away from paper books toward digital ebooks at a very lightening faster speed. So you need to give more options than to sell ebooks to your audience. Use selling platforms like Graphy to sell your ebooks to your audiences but the main takeaway is you can charge for medium-sized ebooks at a low price, but it is completely your choice.

Another way to quantify the price of your ebook is by the depth of your knowledge you have shared and how many sittings your e-readers will need to finish it. Medium-sized ebooks are an excellent source if as a creator you wish to grow your business. Never compromise on the quality of the ebook, share your immerse knowledge using your ebook strategy. In today’s marketing plan ebook is one of the strong elements to grow your business.

3. Long sized ebooks

The third option is a long ebook. Here, your e-readers get a more in-depth, longer reading experience. For non-fiction ebooks, you can consider it as an expanded piece of content where your audience can gain their desired results in over three sittings. If you’re a fiction creator or an author, this is likely where your ebook length will land. Again, if you’re wondering what topic to cover in your ebook take customer feedback. Find out which topics and problems resonate the most among your audience channels and tailor your long ebook to assist solve those specific topics. You can even leverage your social channels and send a survey link with relevant questions. Also, if coming up with writing then a 20,000+ word count may sound daunting to you. That’s a big ebook to assemble. But, there is a full-proof way.

Well, here it is. Write a fast first draft and act like you’re writing ebooks in the contest, where you write down as much content as you can in your first draft without worrying about details. The objective of your fast first draft is to get your ideas down in their skeleton form and then revise at a slower pace.

You can always fill in the content gaps, rework, restructure, and reformat as you want. Mentally, this exercise is worth it because the bulk of your crush vanishes once you have the first draft in hand. Plus, here length may or may not be a selling point. So try it out, and if it doesn’t work, you can always modify your pricing later. Nothing is pre-set when you’re handling your show.

These three ultimate guides will surely help you to rethink about ebook concept and help you to know how long should your ebook be. Use any form of size to write for your audiences. It doesn’t matter much.

How does word count coordinate with the price of your book

It is not in surprise that a longer eBook is likely to cost more as it takes longer to write and edit.

However, this isn’t true always.

You may know that eBooks are much less in production and distribution and are less costly than print books and so eBook versions are less expensive. So how does word count decode into the price? After all, your long-term goal is presumably to make money from your eBook whether you are using the Amazon Kindle platform, course building platform like Graphy, or selling the book directly from your website. Your focus is to get handsome revenue from your ebook. Here, the word count will play a factor when pricing your eBook. Particularly if your book is non-fiction and educates the reader. Such books have a higher value already.

However, if the book is short but delivers a lot of information length doesn’t matter. The fact is if your eBook is short has just turned into a good and even gives more value to your audiences. When it arrives at fiction eBooks, readers will have some sort of expectation for length compared with price.

Ebook length is calculated in word count, not page count.

Kindle short-format eBooks have 5,000–30,000 words
Short stories have 5,000+ words
Nonfiction has 10,000+ words
Novels have 50,000+ words

Why not just calculate by page count

This is one of the most interesting questions as a course creator you may have.

Let’s give you the answer. It’s Because the ebook page varies per device. On every device that page count varies a lot. Like in kindle pages display more content than your iPhone screen.

This creates a bit of difficulty if you plan to publish your ebook. The baseline is to count the no of words count.

So. How long should your ebook be?

It is completely your choice. In the end, write as many words as you need to write to wrap your topic and that is useful to the reader.

The key takeaway

We hope by now you have an idea of how long should your ebook be this will help you work smarter. If it turned out a better book it means your readers enjoy it more and you sell more copies.

The number doesn’t matter if your book is 3,000 words or 300,000 words until it delivers readers value. We suggest you don’t stress the word count. If you focus on delivering the best value and the best story, your readers will be happy no matter how long or short your eBook is.

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