I've had several people tell me they love my work and that I should be selling it, so I'm thinking of getting a booth at a couple of Craft & Artisan Faires to sell some of my pastel paintings. What is the best, least expensive way of displaying artwork for sale while protecting my work. Do I really need to go into the expense of framing every painting? I was thinking that I could possibly get them all matted and on backing board with glass and do a frameless thing. I don't know how expensive that would be.

The main thing is to be sure everything is protected from curious fingers yet able to be displayed attractively.

The other thing is how do you price your paintings? I don't want to price myself out of the market but I don't want to give my work away either.

Pastels should be displayed behind glass.  Pastels can easily be smudged.  You also don't want to flood the market with your images, some people don't want artwork that 100+ other people have.  Don't mass produce, limit your prints, create a demand. 

Pricing it totally up to the artist, there is no set rules or standards when pricing artwork.  Of course, you don't want to price too much, people might think your crazy---and you don't want to price too low, people won't take your art seriously, might be a garage sale item later on down the road.  Research other artists in your area who work in the same medium and sizes or similar too it.

I price my work according to size and medium, since I work in various sizes (9x12-24x48) and various mediums (pastel, Conte, charcoal, and graphite).

I value my smallest cheapest medium (9x12 charcoal or graphite) at $200.  So had to come up with a $ amount per-square inch that gave me about $200, which is $1.85.  I charge my pastels and Conte crayons slightly higher, at $2.00 per square inch. 

Cirekoy is right ... Always have a good stock of lower priced print items (from $10 to $50) which an admirer can readily buy if they can;t meet the budget for original work.  Make plenty of ACEO cards/prints at $10 or more ... But I prefer $10.  These lower priced items are great for slow shows ... they have saved me from being totally on the red many times.  Remember, selling 50 pieces at an average of $20 will cover your expesnes and give you a little extra to work with next time.

Besides, these "low price" shoppers sometimes come back in the future for originals.  You could never discount the marketing opportunity.  Treat all customers the same and always get a name and email address / amiling address for occasional marketing purposes.

Oh, and never take the photographs of your work yourself for prints.  Always do your prints through services that actuall do a SCAN of the print (it is literally a huge vertical scanner).  This service will give you high quality prints

good luck.