Ebook types
The lead magnet ebook
The shortest book worth publishing: a specific problem, solved completely, read in half an hour and given away for an email address.
What BookArc writes for this format
Short and actionable — something to give away.
- Chapters
- 5–7 chapters
- Default length
- 6 chapters · ~900 words each
- Typical book
- ~5,000 words
- Voice
- Non-fiction
- Example genre
- Business / Marketing
- Credits
- 15 at these defaults, cover included
Who writes one
- Coaches and consultants building a list
- Course creators who need something between “stranger” and a $500 course
- Authors offering a companion at the back of an existing book
What this format is for
It is the shortest format here, and the constraint is the point. A giveaway guide is read in the gap it was downloaded into or it is not read at all — so this one is planned to be finishable in one sitting, and every chapter has to justify itself against that.
The plan is explicitly instructed to cut the three chapters that pad most free guides: no throat-clearing opener, no history of the subject, no summary chapter at the end. Each chapter solves one problem and ends with one thing the reader can do today.
What a good one looks like
- A title a competitor could not use. If it fits any consultant in your field, it is too broad.
- One worked example per chapter, with real numbers. Generic advice is what makes a short book feel empty.
- A [back matter](/glossary/back-matter) page that asks for something. This is the highest-value page in the book and it is almost always blank.
The longer case, including the four properties that separate a real list from a dead one, is in the lead magnet post.
How the cover is art-directed
Clean, direct and modern — one bold graphic idea, lots of air, nothing ornamental. It should look useful rather than literary, because that is what somebody is deciding when they choose whether to hand over an email address.
Questions people ask
Should a lead magnet be a PDF or an EPUB?
PDF. It looks identical everywhere, opens without an app, and is what people expect from a downloaded guide. EPUB is for stores.
Can I sell it instead of giving it away?
You can, but at this length it invites refund requests. Under about 5,000 words, giving it away almost always earns more than selling it.
The other five formats
- How-To GuideThe 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.
- Online CourseThe 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.
- Fiction NovelThe 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.
- Research ReportThe format for people whose credibility is the product. Structured like a real research document — and instructed, explicitly, never to invent a citation.
- Interactive WorkbookThe format with the highest completion rate, for the simplest reason: a reader who has written something down has started, and people who start, finish.
Write the book you keep meaning to write.
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