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Minimum Length for Ebooks on Kindle

by aleong
13 replies
I'm venturing into the world of Kindle ebooks and am writing on a health-related topic. The topic is a fairly narrow one, and it will only be about 2,500 words. Is this too short to sell on Kindle? Do they have a minimum word requirement? Because of the length, I will probably only charge $1.99. Any thoughts?
#ebooks #kindle #length #minimum
  • Profile picture of the author Themeplated
    Have you searched through Amazon or done a Google search? I'm sure you'll get a faster answer to your question that way.
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  • Profile picture of the author marcuslim
    There is no minimum word count for kindle books. That said, aim for a reasonable length that provides enough value for the reader, even if you are only charging the minimum $.99
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    Silver Bullet Publishing

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    • Profile picture of the author Chris W. Sutton
      alelong,

      You are a member of the War Room so you should go in and take a look at Paul Coleman's product. I think you will find it tells you just about everything you need to know.

      Good luck with your Kindle project!
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  • Profile picture of the author Paul Coleman
    Hi there,

    My advice from another thread:

    That's a judgment call. If the book is short, then the Kindle sample becomes tiny. That can hurt sales. Also, sometimes customers get angry if a book is short.

    I would recommend 50 pages/10,000 words for a 99 cent book. And double that for the $2.99 book. Of course, the 99 cent book is your leading edge/first in the series.

    Also, it's a good idea to state in the book's description on Amazon how many pages the book contains. Just to head off customer anger. ;-)

    Paul
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    • Profile picture of the author edlewis
      Originally Posted by aleong View Post

      I'm venturing into the world of Kindle ebooks and am writing on a health-related topic. The topic is a fairly narrow one, and it will only be about 2,500 words. Is this too short to sell on Kindle? Do they have a minimum word requirement? Because of the length, I will probably only charge $1.99. Any thoughts?
      There is no minimum length, however you are going to have to price it accordingly.

      2,500 words isn't alot...especially for a niche topic. You may run into some issues...but you may not. I don't know how good the content is.


      Originally Posted by Paul Coleman View Post

      Hi there,

      My advice from another thread:

      That's a judgment call. If the book is short, then the Kindle sample becomes tiny. That can hurt sales. Also, sometimes customers get angry if a book is short.

      I would recommend 50 pages/10,000 words for a 99 cent book. And double that for the $2.99 book. Of course, the 99 cent book is your leading edge/first in the series.

      Also, it's a good idea to state in the book's description on Amazon how many pages the book contains. Just to head off customer anger. ;-)

      Paul
      You're obviously talking about fiction here...right?

      Fiction or non-fiction, it's always a good idea to let people know how short or long your ebook is BEFORE they buy it. That way they know what they are buying. You will get bad reviews and refunds if you market an ebook that people buy expecting a "FULL BOOK"...which then turns out to be only a couple pages long.
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      • Profile picture of the author Don Schenk
        Originally Posted by edlewis View Post

        Fiction or non-fiction, it's always a good idea to let people know how short or long your ebook is BEFORE they buy it. That way they know what they are buying. You will get bad reviews and refunds if you market an ebook that people buy expecting a "FULL BOOK"...which then turns out to be only a couple pages long.
        How do you know the number of pages it will be in Kindle? Doesn't the Kindle reader let the people using it change the font size? Wouldn't that affect the number of pages?

        When you upload your Word doc to Kindle, does Kindle tell you the number of pages it will be in Kindle?

        Obviously I haven't uploaded any yet.

        :-Don
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        • Profile picture of the author edlewis
          Originally Posted by Don Schenk View Post

          How do you know the number of pages it will be in Kindle? Doesn't the Kindle reader let the people using it change the font size? Wouldn't that affect the number of pages?

          When you upload your Word doc to Kindle, does Kindle tell you the number of pages it will be in Kindle?

          Obviously I haven't uploaded any yet.

          :-Don
          Amazon has just added page numbers to Kindle ebooks...however I believe it only works on 3rd generation Kindles.

          Kindle Post US: Kindle

          Kindle won't give you this information when you upload. A better approach is to tell readers in the description how many pages it was in Word or let them know how many words it is.

          Some customers will look at the size of the ebook where Amazon lists "File Size" in the "Product Details" section.

          The only problem here is that an ebook with a few images can make an ebook appear "longer", if you are only using that as a way to measure.
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  • Profile picture of the author TyCohen
    No matter what you price it at, the best thing would be to mention the page length upfront so that your buyers/readers are prepared. Being upfront could also prevent you from receiving negative feedback from those who buy and are turned off by the shortness.

    Ty
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  • Profile picture of the author Thomas Wilkinson
    If you have to ask "what's the minimum" about anything, then you don't yet have a salable product. You should be asking questions like "How can I do more?, How can I provide more value." You want your customer to be overjoyed with their purchase. You want them to be impressed with you and what you've provided.

    Thomas
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    When you hear someone telling you what YOU can't do, they are usually talking about what THEY can't do.
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  • Profile picture of the author steveo
    Originally Posted by aleong View Post

    I'm venturing into the world of Kindle ebooks and am writing on a health-related topic. The topic is a fairly narrow one, and it will only be about 2,500 words. Is this too short to sell on Kindle? Do they have a minimum word requirement? Because of the length, I will probably only charge $1.99. Any thoughts?
    Anything's worth trying once. Go after it, I haven't heard too much about huge kindle sales but I know it's popular. Getting a nice rate like $2 sounds like a good deal.
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    • Profile picture of the author aleong
      Thanks for the input everyone. It sounds like I need to expand the length of the book a bit and make people aware of how many pages they'll be getting. I understand the need to provide value, but I would rather read a concise ebook that gets to the point rather than wade through extraneous information. I'll let you know how it sells once I get it uploaded. Thanks again. :-)
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  • Profile picture of the author txconx
    For e-books, you need to think in terms of number of words, not number of pages. Approximately 100,000 is a full-length mass-market novel. Under 25,000 words is a short story or a novella.
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  • Profile picture of the author thecodemeist3r
    150 pages is a decent amount for a $30 ebook
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