So, you have decided that it is time to put your expertise into an e-book, you have the problem selected, you have your solution ready, now you are ready to write.
How much do you write?
Short and sweet or in-depth?
How do you choose the right length?
Is 5,000 words long enough? Maybe 20,000 words is better. Should you make it 7 pages, 25 pages or 100 pages in length?
Perhaps you have heard the old saying…
“A bad book can’t be short enough, and a good book can’t be too long.”
In other words, your book should not be a single word longer than it needs to be. Deliver all of the information you possibly can, and use no extra fluff or filler.
Generally speaking, e-books that people pay for are expected to be short if you are solving a problem or teaching a “how to” process.
If you are writing a piece of fiction, such as a digital novel, e-books are expected to be longer.
Carol Tice, a well-known blogger, did not know how long to make the first e-book that she was going to sell. She wanted to teach people how to make money writing online. She admits now, years later, that she made her book entirely too long. At a whopping 220 pages, it gave the reader a lot of value, but also way too much content to sort through.
In most cases, for bloggers and online business owners, e-books will sell for somewhere between $7 and $27. This means they are not expecting a long e-book. Your customers want short, quick, easy to implement information that they can put into action right away.
Explain the benefits of the process you are going to teach, then teach the process, then add a summary or conclusion.
Different markets and interests will require different lengths, but usually, somewhere between 5,000 words and 20,000 words is a good e-book length for information marketing purposes.
Hope this helps!
Barb
