What's a fair price for a 500-page trade paperback?

[Elok]

I haven't actually bought a book in ages; a quick survey at the library in between corralling children suggests somewhere north of ten but shy of thirteen. But say it's a sci-fi/fantasy book, roughly similar to Fellowship of the Ring in word count, six by nine inches. What would you consider a reasonable price to pay for it, assuming it's a new author you haven't read?

Note that this question is purely hypothetical and has nothing to do with any books I may or may not be self-publishing.

EDIT: The Curse of Life and all subsidiary creative material appearing in this thread, including, but not limited to, all art, any excerpts, maps, and the rules and board design of the game of Hakamyette, copyright 2017 Brayton Cole. There's your damn copyright notice are you happy now.

[Jon Miller]

I guess 5-8 USD.

My limited experience with physical self published books is that it is best to go for the large flashy paperbacks that you can sell for more. And do lots of readings at every book store that is willing (especially universities and independent book stores).

My significant experience with amazon kindle 'self published' books is that it is best to charge less than 3 USD and have 1000 of your friends claim to have read it and that it is the best thing since GRR Martin.

I would recommend the amazon route.

JM

[ZEE]

Elok is a nerd.

[The Mad Monk]

AAHZ is a fool.

[ZEE]

[kentonio]

My significant experience with amazon kindle 'self published' books is that it is best to charge less than 3 USD and have 1000 of your friends claim to have read it and that it is the best thing since GRR Martin.

I would recommend the amazon route.

JM

Also call it something that you can easily engineer to appear on the first page of google searches.

[rah]

12-16 US dollars would be guess.

12 for self published, and 16 for more best seller type reading.

[Proteus_MST]

If it is the "Hitchhikers guide to the galaxy"-Trilogy (in 4 parts) it is every price worth, of course

[Elok]

I think anything under nine would have me either losing money on every book or at best breaking even. I'm cool with keeping the price lowish to drive sales and maybe have numbers to point to when I try to pitch it to a real publisher. I have neither the know-how nor the resources to do real marketing, though given what Aeson says about how crap advertising on here pays I could probably send him fifty cents and get a permanent banner or something.

[Giancarlo]

$1.99. Won't pay a penny more, unless it had some big pictures and pop out images. Who reads anymore? Too busy catching pokemon.

[rah]

I've probably bought a dozen self published in the last few months.
I have no problem paying 12. It feels like it's cheaper than others.

[Giancarlo]

To be serious, $11-$14... More than that I would be hesitant. It has to be a great book for me to buy it.

[Dinner]

$12 on the high side.

[rah]

Almost all the ones I've been paying 12 have only been in the 350 page range. (forgot to include that earlier.)

[Elok]

Thank you, gentlemen.