Electronic books and printed different lengths

[jbcohen]

I have looked at different reviews of several of the books that I have read in the past and some of the reviews say that the book is 1100 or so pages long while reviews of the electronic book have stated that the book is only 600 or so pages long. Is it possible for the electronic book to be actually shorter then the printed paperback? What accounts for this difference in lengths of the two different editions of the same book? I thought, in the past, that the paperback and the electronic editions had to be the same legth since they are editions of the same book.

[ATDrake]

People are probably going by the automatically calculated page count on their reader, which changes with their font-size setting, rather than by the print page count of the official paper/hardback.

[AnemicOak]

What constitutes a page on an electronic book? It's different between devices and also how one counts pages. By changing various things in a printed edition it's quite possible to change it's page count when type setting just like the number of page turns on an ebook changes by altering the font size.

[jbcohen]

Thus probably the best thing for me to do if I want to get some sense of how big or small this book is would be to go with the number of pages in the printed edition.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

Thus probably the best thing for me to do if I want to get some sense of how big or small this book is would be to go with the number of pages in the printed edition.

If there is a printed edition.

I wish ebooks would use standard word count.

If you know the book is straight text, then file size is often a good indicator.
Lots of graphics can skew that wildly, though.

[dwig]

Originally Posted by jbcohen

Thus probably the best thing for me to do if I want to get some sense of how big or small this book is would be to go with the number of pages in the printed edition.

Yes, if and only if there is at least one printed edition and then only if you know exactly what type of printed edition it is; hardback, mass market hardback (aka "book club"), trade paperback, or pocket sized paperback. Even then, the exact typography makes a big difference.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by ApK

I wish ebooks would use standard word count.

Doesn't Adobe use a standard count for page numbering? Something like 1024 bytes per page, I think.

[Dazrin]

I use the mass market paperback as a comparison if it is available. Then any other paperback, then hardcover, and if there is no printed book I use locations and my historical data of average "locations/printed page" to estimate the page count.

I have been tracking the locations and (paperback) page counts for all the books I have read since I received my Kindle and the average is between 16 (2012 so far) and 19 (2011) locations/printed page. Shorter books can be much higher (my max is about 35 locations/page, but that was for a short story, so the cover image is disproportionate) and simply formatted books can be lower (10-15 locations per page is common).

[ApK]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

Doesn't Adobe use a standard count for page numbering? Something like 1024 bytes per page, I think.

All the vendors stick to SOME standard.
That's not standard word count. Standard word count is 5-character length average words, which, IIRC is the way various editors and stringers get paid.

ApK

[crich70]

With a printed copy once a book is printed it's set in stone but with ecopies even a single copy can vary in page length depending on font and font size.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

People are probably going by the automatically calculated page count on their reader, which changes with their font-size setting, rather than by the print page count of the official paper/hardback.

Originally Posted by crich70

With a printed copy once a book is printed it's set in stone but with ecopies even a single copy can vary in page length depending on font and font size.

ePub does not change the page number based on the font size. ePub pages are based on (I think) 1024 bytes of data.

One thing to note is that hardcovers have wider margins, bigger line space and larger print then most eBook you'll be reading on a reader.

[flipreads]

First off, even with paper books, they can have different page counts, whether it's due to design, design, or size (i.e. trade vs. mass-market).

eBook formatting will also be different, so it figures that it will have a different page count, in addition to the software you're using and which device.

[Authorfriendly]

I have been tracking the locations and (paperback) page counts for all the books I have read since I received my Kindle and the average is between 16 (2012 so far) and 19 (2011) locations/printed page. Shorter books can be much higher (my max is about 35 locations/page, but that was for a short story, so the cover image is disproportionate) and simply formatted books can be lower (10-15 locations per page is common).

Mind telling me what locations is?

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by Authorfriendly

Mind telling me what locations is?

Location is a mechanism used by Amazon to reference a specific spot in an ebook file. Locations work easily with books even when you change the font size.