The Value of Readers

As an author I love readers. They are the people who bring appreciation to my work and whose pleasure is the most important motivation to my writing.
However I often hear other authors bemoan there is no money to be made from writing, that free and discounted books are spoiling it for everyone, and that there is something wrong in not buying the books you read at a reasonable price.
While I would love everyone to pay a top price for my work this idea sort of misses the point.
It does not value the time the reader puts in of their own. If a reader chooses to read one of my 70,000 word novels they are likely to invest at least 10 hours of time, that they have chosen to spend on this, not something else. Sure I hope they enjoy the use of this time, but this is secondary.
If I choose to spend ten hours of my time doing something that ten hours has a real value - I could use it to work on something else that has a value, I could do a paid job, I could make a piece of furniture or do a painting I love, I could go and see a movie.
So, even if I only value my time at ten dollars an hour then this time is worth at least $100. I can buy a lot of other things for $100.
So the idea that reading my free book comes at no cost is just silly - in fact a reader would spends many hundreds if not thousands of dollars reading all the words in the books I have written.
I know because this is what it costs for me to pay an editor to read them.
Of course I would love for all my readers to pay me to read my books say $5,00 per book. But even if they don't I think I am a clear winner, i have got them to expend hundreds of dollars worth of their valuable time in reading my words, and often they then encourage others to do the same multiplying the value.
So even if I have ten thousand free downloads of a book, (which some of my better selling books have managed) I think I am a winner - that's a million dollars of other peoples time spent on reading something by me.
If I could monetise just 1% that is a useful amount - it would let me pay more struggling people in the industry for their services.
Of course I am a lucky one. I have a well paid job outside of writing and hence don't really need the little part of my income that book sales contribute, welcome though it is.
But even if I got nothing other than the pleasure of satisfied readers I still think I wold be a clear winner. At least that's what I tell myself every time I wish I got paid more for my books!!
Happy reading and thank you to all my long suffering and loyal readers!!!