What is your *Favorite Book Bonus Feature*?

[Ann in Arlington]

FWIW, word count means nothing to me. Of course, if the book has an associated paper title I can see the number of pages.  I always compare that to the number of locations.  By doing this, I've come to an understanding of how many locations is a short, medium, or long book -- according to how I think of 'em.  So even if there are no page numbers I have a pretty good idea.

I've also gotten in the habit of checking the ToC to see if there's any end matter and if so where it begins. . . assuming there is a ToC.

[Cristian YoungMiller]

FWIW, word count means nothing to me. Of course, if the book has an associated paper title I can see the number of pages.  I always compare that to the number of locations.  By doing this, I've come to an understanding of how many locations is a short, medium, or long book -- according to how I think of 'em.  So even if there are no page numbers I have a pretty good idea.

I've also gotten in the habit of checking the ToC to see if there's any end matter and if so where it begins. . . assuming there is a ToC.

The question is, is having the words remaining in a book better than nothing? I think that including things like author interviews, discussion questions, promos for other books and excerpts are going to become more and more ubiquitous in time. The question is what would be the best way to let the reader know that the story is coming to an end and that the last 10% of the book is other stuff.

What would be more helpful to you to see at the beginning of each chapter:

Chapter 14 (of 14)

or

Chapter 14
(3,000 words remaining)

I would assume that if this were placed on every chapter you will very quickly get a feel for how many kindle pages 3,000 words represents. Do you agree?

[Cristian YoungMiller]

Also, as a bonus feature, I'm thinking about including an author reading of the prologue of one of my books.

What would happen would be that when you bought the book, the audio file would end up in your Kindle Media Library. It would then live there and if you wanted to listen to it you could and if you wanted to ignore it you could. The file wouldn't' take up any room on your kindle device. And you could chose to download it to your kindle like an audio file or you could listen to in on your computer. And if you have an iPad you would be able to click on a link within the book and play it instantly.

Would you all enjoy that bonus feature with your book?

[Ann in Arlington]

The question is, is having the words remaining in a book better than nothing? I think that including things like author interviews, discussion questions, promos for other books and excerpts are going to become more and more ubiquitous in time. The question is what would be the best way to let the reader know that the story is coming to an end and that the last 10% of the book is other stuff.

What would be more helpful to you to see at the beginning of each chapter:

Chapter 14 (of 14)

or

Chapter 14
(3,000 words remaining)

I would assume that if this were placed on every chapter you will very quickly get a feel for how many kindle pages 3,000 words represents. Do you agree?

For me, neither one would be particularly helpful.  I already know how many chapters if I looked at the ToC.  I suppose if there's no ToC having the "1 of 14" would at least give a clue. . .but, as scarlet said, you still haven't any idea how long the chapter is.

I still don't see the need for word count. . .locations work for me -- as long as it's reasonably easy to find where the end of the actual book is.

Also, as a bonus feature, I'm thinking about including an author reading of the prologue of one of my books.

What would happen would be that when you bought the book, the audio file would end up in your Kindle Media Library. It would then live there and if you wanted to listen to it you could and if you wanted to ignore it you could. The file wouldn't' take up any room on your kindle device. And you could chose to download it to your kindle like an audio file or you could listen to in on your computer. And if you have an iPad you would be able to click on a link within the book and play it instantly.

Would you all enjoy that bonus feature with your book?

Speaking for myself only:  it wouldn't appeal to me at all.  I have no interest in listening to music or books on my Kindle -- or anywhere else, frankly.  I play various musical instruments and when I want music I make it myself.  When I want to read, I read -- I don't listen.

Further, if it's a prologue of the book I've just read -- well, I hope the prologue was included so I've already read it, and don't really care to hear the author reading it.  If it's a prologue for some upcoming book, I'd ignore it as I do 'previews' of other books at the end of what I'm reading.

Again. . .the above is my opinion only. . . . .I don't claim to be representative of all readers, or even all KBer's.

[telracs]

Christian,  I applaud your efforts to add more value to books, but honestly, all I want is the book.  I don't want to read about why an author wrote the story, or how the whole thing came about, for me, that dilutes the magic of my imagination.  Put those things on your website if you want, with a simple link in your ebook file, so if people are interested they can look.  And those of us who aren't can just move on.

I do own some audio books, but those are ones I've specifically bought as audio files.  I don't want to buy an audio file that will live somewhere else just because I want to read a book.  And in truth, I prefer my audiobooks that were done by a professional actor, in fact, I've refrained from buying audiobooks based on the person reading them.

Again, it's great that you have all these ideas, but for me it's simple, write a good story, let me read it and then move on to the next one.