Quote:
Originally Posted by Hitch
Exactly. The idea of a blank line between paragraphs never even really appeared, in any recreational reading, prior to the advent of the web and the then-inability to create first-line indented paragraphs for reading. Only textbooks and that type of non-fiction material used white-space to indicate the change from one paragraph to another, primarily because said book would also include other formatting challenges (say, bulleted/numbered lists, charts, tables) that would look peculiar with the traditional first-line-indent paragraphy style.
I mean: just walk around your own bookshelves and pick up books at random and look at them. You will not, in fiction, see any--not one--that has white-space between paragraphs, or block-style. It's a massive waste of space (which is even more valuable on an e-reader) and increased printing costs. I've seen myriad complaints (and read them first-hand from people coming to us to "fix" books that they've self-pubbed) from readers with devices sending emails to Amazon, etc., about how much of their screen-space is wasted by block-style paragraphs for no reason. Smartphone and small tablet readers are particularly aggravated by this, it seems.
FWIW.
Hitch
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Just because a paper book doesn't have spaces is not a reason an ebook shouldn't have them. That's the beauty of ebooks - you can have them presented to you the way you want. It seems like more people don't want them than do, but that's different than saying there should be no spaces because paper books don't have them.