johneames
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@johneames
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Post by johneames on Dec 6, 2017 12:31:52 GMT
Hello, How much should a book cost? I ask because I'm currently reading a 36-page black and white book which cost £14.99. Yes, you read it right - 36 pages. Don't get me wrong. It's worth every penny. It's a beautifully illustrated book on Dorset footpaths. But I know I can buy Wolf Hall for under £4 and that runs to nearly 700 pages. That's a halfpenny a page instead of 41p a page. My footpath book - Holloway by Macfarlane, Donwood and Richards - was originally printed as a limited edition of 277 copies and one would clearly expect to pay a premium price for one of those. But my £14.99 edition is a reprint by Faber & Faber. The paper is lightweight rather than art-paper quality and - horror of horrors - it appears to be perfect-bound rather than stitched. It looks 'nice' but lacks the sort of quality that shouts "I'm worth £14.99". At the end of the day, I bought the book; it was a topic that interested me and I was happy with handing over the cover price. It did intrigue me, however, how Faber decided on the price. Do they reason that this is a niche market and those specialists like me will pay the price, or are there other market forces at work? And then there's the question of how much an ebook should cost. But that's probably a topic for a separate thread! Please help. Thanks! I didn't find the right solution from the Internet. References:http://www.bookclubforum.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/11714-how-much-should-a-book-cost/ brand marketing video
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2017 15:25:36 GMT
Well that would depend on the size of it.
But a 36 page book should not cost £14.99. A 36 book should cost like £5 at most not even that really.
Also i would not call it a book when its only 36 pages
A book should be over 500 pages if its going to cost £14.99
at least that is what i think
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Post by Terrapin Station on Dec 6, 2017 15:30:43 GMT
Something that's interesting about e-books is that if you're a self-published author, you need to not charge too little for it, because that creates a perceived value impression that makes people not bother. A lot of self-published authors wouldn't mind selling their books for a dollar or two, with the hope that they might turn more people on to their work. But consumers think, "Oy--that must be crap if they're charging so little for it."
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Post by Ass_E9 on Dec 6, 2017 17:03:46 GMT
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klandersen
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Post by klandersen on Dec 6, 2017 21:52:03 GMT
How much it should cost in my opinion depends on type of binding, paperback in general should be cheaper than it's hardcover counterpart. Also number of pages a 500 page novel should be a little more than a 200 page book. Of course who knows what criteria they base the prices on. Oh I guess the publishers do charge a bit more for the more established better known authors.
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Post by hi224 on Dec 6, 2017 23:36:47 GMT
0.00.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 8, 2017 1:02:26 GMT
A man's soul.
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Post by alittlebirdie on Dec 8, 2017 2:06:23 GMT
Not sure, but what's irked me in the past was when the Canadian dollar was on par with the American dollar but we still had to pay more.
You can get beautiful huge Art books for next to nothing, but as you say you can spend a lot for a small book....
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mrdanwest
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Post by mrdanwest on Dec 8, 2017 3:37:20 GMT
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Post by FrankSobotka1514 on Dec 8, 2017 23:50:51 GMT
If it's a book by James Patterson then it should cost less than a buck.
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mmexis
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Post by mmexis on Dec 9, 2017 5:23:43 GMT
I think the size of the audience will also factor into the book's price. If a book is expected to have a very small reading audience, it will cost more. The number of pages of a book is irrelevant. If price was somehow proportional to number of pages, textbooks would be cheap! Also the number of books they expect to sell (that's why Dan Brown is cheap) will help them to recoup their costs faster.
and even though your copy is a Faber and Faber reprint, they probably are recouping money they paid to the original publisher when they bought the rights. You did say it was a limited edition, hence the right to reprint would be pricier. Be happy they they even bothered to reprint. How much did the original book cost?
while it seems that books should be sold by the pound, that's not it - unfortunately.
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