Ebook types
Six kinds of book, six different shapes
A course is not a novel with modules and a report is not a guide with charts. Each of these is planned differently, written differently and art-directed differently — here is what each one is actually for.
Lead Magnet
The shortest book worth publishing: a specific problem, solved completely, read in half an hour and given away for an email address.
5–7 chapters · ~900 words each
How-To Guide
The workhorse non-fiction format. Its whole value is in the ordering — chapters arranged the way the work is actually done, not the way a syllabus lists it.
10–12 chapters · ~1,200 words each
Online Course
The longest non-fiction format here, and the most structured: modules grouped into units, each with one objective phrased as something the learner will be able to do.
15–20 chapters · ~1,100 words each
Fiction Novel
The only fiction format here, and the one where continuity does the most work — because a novel that contradicts itself in chapter nineteen is a novel nobody finishes.
20–30 chapters · ~1,500 words each
Research Report
The format for people whose credibility is the product. Structured like a real research document — and instructed, explicitly, never to invent a citation.
8–12 chapters · ~1,400 words each
Interactive Workbook
The format with the highest completion rate, for the simplest reason: a reader who has written something down has started, and people who start, finish.
10–15 chapters · ~1,000 words each
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