Novel in Size

I've been wondering lately...

What's a legitimate novel size?

It had not puzzled me much before. But I have kept my books to a moderate size due to prices.

When I look at the books in Barnes and Noble, I see a price which I cannot accomplish with the same sized book with my publisher.

How this came to be is the dynamics of publishing one book at a time rather than bulk printing and shipping like the big companies do. So, when I write I have something to keep in mind... "Don't I want to buy this book sometime soon?"

If I could afford it, I'd go shopping at Barnes and Noble often. I'd build a shelf of books.

I have always dreamed of having a great big library, you know that biggest room in the house kind of dream.

But, do the sizes I write at make the world of difference to the readers?

I have contemplated writing much larger novels, maybe expanding the size to be two times what its predecessors were.

Yet, I feel if I did that, it would be much harder to publish since the price might blow up from $15 to $30 which a considerable jump for paperback.

The only easy form to publish it in then would be an eBook format.



I'm at a loss then.


What are your thoughts?


Should a story be longer? Or should the price of a story affect its size?