If I self-publish a collection of poems and sell them at open mics and festivals etc, how much do you think I should charge for each copy? I've had a quote from a local printers and it looks like I'd need to sell at about £8 a copy to get my money back. I know it will be expensive if I don't cover my costs, but will people really pay more than a fiver for a book of poems, even one with a glossy cover?

:(

I'm wondering whether it might be better to charge less than the cost price and make a loss, but at least know that people are reading my poems.

Its a tricky question without actually seeing the number of poems in the collection. In all honesty I would quite happily pay £5.

Now, if I enjoyed the session I might be inclined to pay £8 but I would think about it probably having a good flick through the book unless I had really enjoyed the performance.

One thing that will swing it is how many poems the book has and Im not overly concerned about the book cover so long as it is sturdy and not going to fall apart after a couple of readings.

Personally I wouldnt make a loss on the books. Its a lot of effort to go through just to let people read your work, least you can do is break even or make a little money for your efforts.

Could you do more work on it yourself to produce it more cheaply. Or are these just printing costs? Could you produce a disk of your work instead? Or do people still want actual books? £3.00 is quite a loss per item - it would be cheaper to produce booklets and give them away if your main concern is getting people to read your stuff.
The other option may be to find someone (or group of people) who wants to put their work with yours. If you perform together and sell the book together I think people would think they were getting a good deal at £8.00.

My experience from hosting Poetry Bites is that people would pay up to 8 pounds for a well established poet who did a really good reading, but pamphlets sell better. Don't expect to make any money out of poetry. I've given away loads of my collection, as a calling card. Your audience is generally going to be more inclined to buy a fairly basic volume for 3 pounds than a glossy one for 8.

Hi, Silvertongue.

£8 sounds a bit steep to me for a book of poems. £6 sounds more affordable. £4 sounds a bit, well, junky for a book - though a £4 paper covered chapbook would seem reasonable to my pocket.

I think you need to get more quotes - have you tried online print-on-demand outfits like lulu.com yet?

[edit - just noticed the date of the original post - oops]