JudokaLilly wrote:I'm curious because I'm looking to sell my first VN for around $5.00 - would you pay that much for a game of this length? How long is the average long, medium, and short VN? Sorry for so many questions, just trying to get my research done ^_^
In my opinion, that is too much for a first novel. Not that I want to discourage too. It is a realistic oppinion, not subjective.
What makes a book to worth more or less is not the number of words or the time required to read it, it is the quality of the literature (if yours is a novel or poetry or similar).
You may find books with barely 50 pages that are maybe 40$ or €, which are a very good quality literature. But also books of 500 pages for 20 $/€ which are boring and probably nobody is gonna read.
Also the matherials to print it may change the price, obviously. In your VN, the materials are the game art, music, sfx, etc...
If this is your first VN and your first writ, it may be less quality than well known tales written by well known writters. Of course, I hope yours is the best quality possible!!!
Another problem you have to confront is that nobody knows your writting skills (I think) besides maybe your friends and parents, so it is likely nobody will pay 5€ to try your novel, which may be, in addition, your first novel.
What I would recommend is that you write some novels and distribute them for free. Once you are well known in this world and everyone likes your novels, your "fans" won't mind to pay some gold coins to read what they like.
But if you make your first novel not free, you may risk your future because someone that pays those 5 bucks and don't like the novel will probably write a very bad critique, lowering your popularity a lot, making you almost impossible to overcome your bad luck.
In addition, you may try Android Market. If your VN is done with Ren'Py engine, you can distribute it for, lets say 50 cents. Nobody will burn you alive if they didn't liked your novel. It was just only 50 cents and people is *usually* kind and understand that is your first novel. That will let you know if the community didn't mind to pay those 50 cents for your novel, then you may consider to write something else and set a higher price.
For me, when in a kinetic or a VN without minigames ans the like:
Short = Moonlight Walks
Medium = Noticeabely more than Moonlight Walks and less than A Due
Long = At least like A Due.
As my personal oppinion, if your novel is so-so (short or long, i don't mind), I would not pay more than 1€/$ or 130 yen, whatever you prefer. Maybe 3 or 4 if it were a real book.
If your novel is excelent in almost every aspect, I would not mind to pay 50€ or more for it.