My understanding (perhaps flawed?) is that each extra (blank) space - if it's a hard carriage return, is an extra line. And the way some of these horribly formatted 'novels' come out, I wouldn't be surprised to find this is the case.
With a longer novel, which is what we are talking about, that could artificially lengthen the novel.
I'm writing my own novel, but then who isn't? I suspect someone's Grandmaw or Grandpaw is, at this very moment, working on one.
The reason for my search is that I like to read long novels (and short stories and normal-length novels, too, of course), but it occurred to me while looking, downloading and reading all the Indie novels I've been reading and enjoying for the past 3 years, that I've yet to see an Indie writer commit to such a length.
Don