Personally if the book is larger or has more pages I'm more inclined to spend more on it than if it's a shorter book because it feels more like it's worth the money than it would've been if it was a shorter book. Does anyone else feel the same way? Or will you buy it at whatever price they set regardless of the number of pages it has if it's a book you want?
I feel exactly the same way as you, @coclgooh! Now that just about anybody can self-publish, there appears to be a lot of 'books' called novellas and they are my worst nightmare. It took me absolutely ages to cotton onto them, and I'd go on Amazon and just click away based on the premise, only to find I'd just purchased a 50-page 'book' for something ridiculous like $2.99!! I now keep a sharp eye out for them and simply refuse to waste my time on them. What I hate even more is when the author goes on to release sequels to the 'book' with pretty much the same number of pages! A book for me has to be at least 200-pages, or if it's a very short book maybe 150+ pages. Maybe I'd reconsider if these novellas went for free to maybe $0.50.
I agree completely, @Lushlala! I'd rather they released all of those sequels to their novellas in one book at the same time as separate chapters or the like and it was 200 pages and four novellas in one book! I'd even maybe pay an extra $1 or so to have 4 in one, but I wouldn't be happy paying $12 for 4 at $3 each!
Hmmmm. This is an interesting question. I suppose it doesn't? If I really want a book, then I will pay for it no matter what the number of pages, unless it is a ridiculous contrast - may be £10 for a two page book, or something like that. As for paying more for more pages, I don't know how I feel about that.
I only care about the quality of the information. I would pay $1000 to hear the right sentence if I knew it was going to make me 1 million, so I try to keep an objective opinion on the nature of the book rather than the price of a book compared to the number of pages. Some of the most important books I've ever read in my life were only 50 pages
@cocolgooh...It's VERY annoying, especially because it seems to be becoming common practice! But many people who read the same genre as me, where I've noticed it, have started hitting back with very low ratings for this sort of thing when they review the book. What's more, many of us are refusing to buy the so-called sequels; so in the end these authors are really just cutting off their noses to spite their faces. Quite frankly, I don't care what they do, but they shouldn't expect me to come onboard. I'm happily moving onto serious authors whose focus isn't on robbing their fans blind
I hardly ever buy books anymore unless it is by an author that I really like. I will only download free ebooks and do not consider purchasing them. If there is a book that I want to read, I will go to the library first before I consider buying it. I am not sure if the number of pages make a difference to me. I look more at the quality of the content versus the quantity of it. I think if something is interesting and written well then it can be worth the $2.99.
With Ebooks it is usually is very hard to tell how many pages the books has. In fact the reason I stopped buying ebooks is because I was scammed once. I bought an ebook which promised to have lots of information about something I was interested in but after buying the book found out it was only 10 pages long and it cost $10. That said, it's what's in the book that matters to me. If a book, short though it might be, contains some invaluable information, I'll buy it even if it is expensive.
Generally speaking as the size of a book or the number of pages it has - isn't necessarily an indication that the quality of the contents will match its looks - no it doesn't in any way influence what I'm prepared to pay. In fact - as I only ever buy books these days when the content is of such interest or so useful to me - that its a keeper - which I might add is not that often now that everything is so widely available via the internet - I'm normally happy to pay whatever is necessary regardless of size or page quantity.
I won't always be willing to pay more for a longer book as such, but I do object to spending more on a book with barely any pages in it at all. If an author is selling a book for £5 or more, and it's only going to take me an hour to read it, I just don't see the point in spending the money when I could buy another book which could be just as good if not better, that would provide me with much more entertainment in the long term.
As much as I hate to admit it I do look at that as a factor. Sometimes I might be able to ignore it if I do think I will like the book or if I believed the recommendations for it well enough but just generally speaking I do tend to place some value into how much time I can spend on it and if it turns out that I will be finished with it too soon then I might hesitate a bit or just look for a discounted or cheaper version and if not I will wait until I find a second hand one I can buy for cheaper. If not I will buy it then I will just sell it second hand when I'm done so I can get some of the money back.
