Phil: When working on people’s websites, I come from the usability camp. That doesn’t mean I sleep in a tent or walk funny, it’s those of us who decide how a site should work by looking at the people who use it and see what they are doing. We don’t ask them what they want, we watch to see what they do and then modify the pages to match those expectations.
The theory is that if you give people what they expect, using the website is easier and they achieve whatever it is they came to it wanting to do. It’s a bit like car design really – put the brake pedal anywhere but the middle and you’ll lose a sale. Steve Krug nailed it with his book, “Don’t make me think“. If I have to learn how to use a website then I’m probably not going to bother.
I reckon you can apply some of these lessons to writing a book and chief amongst these is chapter length.
Grabbing some books from my shelves, I did a quick survey:
John Wyndham – The Midwich Cuckoos – 12 pages
Tony Hawks – A Piano in the Pyrenees – 16 pages
Freya North – Pip – 13 pages
Stephen King – The Long Walk – 19 pages
Alan Titchmash – Knave of Spades – 7 pages
My methodology (for those who care about such things) was to pick a random chapter somewhere in the middle of the book and count the pages. Don’t complain, it’s as scientific as most of the stuff you get reported on the telly.
What does it tell us?
Not as much as I expected. My guess was that chick-lit would have shorter chapters than other genres. Freya North and Alan Titchmarsh (same audience I reckon) are on the lower end of the scale and she manages a few 2 pagers in the book. A quick look at our Book and I think we are in line with this.
Since it’s rude to gawp over people’s shoulders while they read, I’m basing the conclusions on Candice and my feelings. Both of us are fans of short chapters to give a story pace. We’ve broken our story pretty much every time you change scene as this seems logical and tried not to stay in any one place too long.
I also think it makes the book easier to read. I pick books up and put them down to snatch a moment of reading. If I can do a chapter, the bookmark moves in a satisfying way and it doesn’t seem odd to stop. If the chapter end is 4 pages away, I’ll stick at it. 10 pages and I’ll probably realise that I’m not going to make it to the end in this session so will look for another convenient place to halt, be it a paragraph or end of page. Picking up won’t be so easy but I don’t have any choice.
Injecting pace with short chapters will probably increase the tiem a reader spends with you each session. Get momentum in the story which carries you along and you think, “Oh I’ll just do another chapter” making the book becomes a page turner. Both readers and writers want that don’t they?
Conclusion: Length matters and for commercial fiction, short wins.
nolanparker 
I prefer books with short chapters too. I find them easier to read and harder to put down. As soon as one chapter ends I always feel like reading one more.
Exactly how I feel. There is probably a minimum chapter length to be worked out – you don’t want 2 page chapters all the way through – but as a reader I do like to feel I’m making progress. Short chapters make allowing yourself, “Just one more” to seem like a treat.