Live blogging my ebook prep 002 - How long should it be?

@RonElFran (1214)
Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania
December 4, 2015 8:31pm CST
The first question I had about my ebook, after deciding to get started on it, was how long does an ebook need to be? I did some research and found that for fiction the consensus seems to be that unless you label the work as a short story, you need upwards of 50,000 words to have a respectable book that won't leave readers feeling short changed. 50,000+ is a lot of words! Knowing myself, I think if the entry bar for writing an ebook was that high, I'd probably decide I'm not ready yet. But wait, all is not lost! Fortunately for me, I'm planning a non-fiction work. And the consensus about those is that you can go as low as maybe 4000 words. That made me feel a lot better - I have HubPages articles that long! My plan is to adapt two of my HubPages articles that total just under 6000 words. Now, with the freedom to include material that I researched but left out of those articles for the sake of space, I expect the ebook to reach at least 10,000 words. That sounds about right to me. It's long enough to really cover the material in an interesting way, but short enough not to appear daunting to someone reading on a phone or tablet.
1 person likes this
2 responses
@JudyEv (382329)
• Rockingham, Australia
6 Dec 15
There is going to be a lot of decisions to make. I'm sure it will be a fascinating journey.
@skysnap (20152)
5 Dec 15
I'd say don't go for 50K at one go. Write 5K per 10 days. And then make that 50K within long period. that way you'd go for long haul. And also there would be enough content for people to read.