KB question

[Marti Talbott]

Before Amazon started listing page counts, readers looked at the KB to gauge how long a book was. (Yes, I'm that old :0) The other day I was looking at the bestseller list in my category and discovered this:

number 1 best seller:

File Size: 3181 KB
Print Length: 294 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1542006058
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer (April 1, 2020)

Here is my book in that category:

File Size: 1000 KB
Print Length: 392 pages
Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1515162478
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Publisher: MT Creations; (July 18, 2015)

The only thing I can think of that would increase the KB by that much is formatting and / or a ton of advertisements in the back of the book. Anybody know? Does that make a difference as far as sales are concerned?

[Bill Hiatt]

Illustrations? It's hard to imagine one of Amazon's imprints would have bloated files for no reason. On the other hand, this is Amazon we're talking about...

[Marti Talbott]

Illustrations? It's hard to imagine one of Amazon's imprints would have bloated files for no reason. On the other hand, this is Amazon we're talking about...

[Post-Crisis D]

Cover art also makes a big difference.

And there's probably little incentive for Amazon's own imprints to reduce the image size, possibly sacrificing image size for image quality.  I would imagine they'd want the art to look its best.  Plus, if Amazon's own imprints don't have to worry about delivery fees, the larger file size doesn't matter.  Or, if Amazon charges their own imprints a delivery fee, that delivery fee goes right back to Amazon.  So, either way, little incentive for Amazon to worry about file size.

[RPatton]

Everyone basically nailed it. It's the images. Chapter images, cover image, any graphics for advertising, the publisher logo. Most books have a few incidental images and they do add up when it comes to KBs.

And while the delivery cost might go up for non Amazon imprints, that cost is more than made up in other ways.