Interesting Blog Post on ebook Length

[Svrtnsse]

So if a story is excellent, readers will get angry that they overpaid by a buck and didn't get, say, another 10k words out of it? I'm not being sarcastic, I really am amazed by this and I have very little experience with ebooks.

Would the opposite inspire loyalty?

What Steerpike said.
Imagine you're barricading yourself in the sofa with a good book and it's finished before even half the candle's burned. Even if the story was great it didn't last as long as you'd expected.
I don't think the same really applies if it's too long. If the story just drags on your excitement will slowly fizzle out, while if it's too short your disappointment is more immediate.

 

[Kevin O. McLaughlin]

I think they'll be angry if they feel deceived, even if they liked the product. No one likes to feel as though they bought something due to deception.

Yes, this.

Nobody likes believing they have bought one thing and finding out they bought another. If they're EXPECTING to buy a good, ten hour read and they GET a good, one hour read? Readers are going to be pissed.

With print books, you can tell by looking at the physical object how many words are there (roughly, anyway). It's important to use markers on a digital product so that readers know what they're getting.

EVERY reader wants - and expects - a good story for their money. It's the other expectations that must also be met or exceeded that can mess you up as a publisher.

 

[ThinkerX]

For once, I'm fairly pleased that most of my stuff looks like it will be on the shorter side.

Especially as I did some rather brutal editing to turn an old unfinished 'novel' into a series of short stories/novellas.

 

[Lord Ben]

I don't know much about publishing, etc but I will say that I buy several free-$2.99 books off Amazon each month. I will avoid something if it's <100 pages but would also avoid it if it's too long. I have a few things added to my "wish list", which I use as a "maybe later list", A Storm in Tormay: The Complete Tormay Trilogy I have in my wish list and while it's only $5 for 750 pages I simply have had more interest in starting smaller and more easily digested books than in something big and massive even if it's cheaper per page.

So I lean towards the ~200 page books that move along at a good pace and simply tell me an interesting story. I'd rather read four 200 page interesting books with different stories than one 750 page interesting trilogy.