Kindle book giveaways hurting sales even of unrelated books

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Does the value change, or does our perception of value shift over time?

Isn't value and perception of value the same thing? Something's only worth what someone else will pay for it. Realtors tell us that all the time.

Isn't there such a thing as intrinsic value?

Also, since when did quality and price always go hand in hand?

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/value-intrinsic-extrinsic/#TheSucThiIntValAll

"Consider, first, the metaphysics underlying ascriptions of intrinsic value. It seems safe to say that, before the twentieth century, most moral philosophers presupposed that the intrinsic goodness of something is a genuine property of that thing, one that is no less real than the properties (of being pleasant, of satisfying a need, or whatever) in virtue of which the thing in question is good. (Several dissented from this view, however. Especially well known for their dissent are Thomas Hobbes [1588–1679], who believed the goodness or badness of something to be constituted by the desire or aversion that one may have regarding it, and David Hume [1711–1776], who similarly took all ascriptions of value to involve projections of one's own sentiments onto whatever is said to have value.)"

... and LC who believes that anything that doesn't sell is garbage.

Shelagh's article:

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/value-intrinsic-extrinsic/#TheSucThiIntValAll

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Hägerström characterized his own view as a type of “value-nihilism,” and many have followed suit in taking noncognitivism of all kinds to constitute a rejection of the very idea of intrinsic value. But this seems to be a mistake. We should distinguish questions about value from questions about evaluation. Questions about value fall into two main groups, conceptual (of the sort discussed in the last section) and substantive (of the sort discussed in the first section). Questions about evaluation have to do with what precisely is going on when we ascribe value to something. Cognitivists claim that our ascriptions of value constitute statements that are either true or false; noncognitivists deny this. But even noncognitivists must recognize that our ascriptions of value fall into two fundamental classes—ascriptions of intrinsic value and ascriptions of extrinsic value—and so they too must concern themselves with the very same conceptual and substantive questions about value as cognitivists address. It may be that noncognitivism dictates or rules out certain answers to these questions that cognitivism does not, but that is of course quite a different matter from rejecting the very idea of intrinsic value on metaphysical grounds.

alj wrote:

Isn't there such a thing as intrinsic value?

Also, since when did quality and price always go hand in hand?

Good question.

To me, intrinsic value is a price floor, an amount under which most people will not sell an item. But, like value, it exists in context. You can buy a house in Detroit right now for $100. What's the intrinsic value of the house? Surely more than $100. But you'd have to live in Detroit. That impacts the intrinsic value.

In a SHTF situation, what will be the intrinsic value of fine jewelry, art, and people with degrees in gender studies and job titles of Diversity Officer? What will be the intrinsic value of medicine boxes, food staples and people with the ability to fix and build things?

Re quality and price, I don't recall saying they went hand in hand. Because that's subjective, too ...I find lots of quality stuff on sale or second hand.

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... and LC who believes that anything that doesn't sell is garbage.

I said anything you can't sell or give away is garbage. I know you disagree.

LC wrote:

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... and LC who believes that anything that doesn't sell is garbage.

I said anything you can't sell or give away is garbage. I know you disagree.

My mother would disagree. The intrinsic value of the book of poems from me is the same whether in hard cover or paperback. She treasures the copy she received because it came from me. However, she values the more expensive book because it looks nicer. It does. If it didn't, who would pay three times the cost of the paperback version? Her sister asked for a copy of the cheaper book; it would have been rude to ask for the expensive one and much easier to offer to pay for the cheaper one!

Your book has sentimental value to your mom, not intrinsic value.

I'm not sure what you meant by the rest of your post. Yes, hard covers cost more than paperbacks. So? That reflects their production costs, not intrinsic value. I can buy hardcovers for a $1 in a bookstore bargain bin. Since I'm not the mother of any of the authors, they have no value to me other than that.

Anyhow, you've said that you've given away thousands of free downloads of your books, so obviously they have value. If you put paid ads inside, you'd be monetizing that value.

I think an auction is the best example. The highest bidder sets the value.

It's disconcerting when I go to Sams and see that hardcover bestsellers are going for less than half of what I have to pay for my POD hardcover with my author's discount. And the latest and greatest aren't exactly flying off the shelves at those prices.

LC wrote:

Your book has sentimental value to your mom, not intrinsic value.

That's what I said:

Shelagh wrote:

The intrinsic value of the book of poems from me is the same whether in hard cover or paperback. She treasures the copy she received because it came from me.

The intrinsic value of the poems is the same in both hard cover and paperback, but my mother only has one daughter to write poems for her. I also said that she values the more expensive book because it looks nicer, not because the intrinsic value of the hard cover is greater than the intrinsic value of the paperback. The packaging of the poems adds to the tactile and visual pleasure of the book.

LC wrote:

I'm not sure what you meant by the rest of your post. Yes, hard covers cost more than paperbacks. So?

They cost more to produce and that is reflected in the retail price.

LC wrote:

Anyhow, you've said that you've given away thousands of free downloads of your books, so obviously they have value.

Yes, promotion is important; when readers download free and bought ebooks, they forget which they bought and which they didn't, so they say.

Al has sold 100,000 copies of his computer language book (C++). Joe Konrath has given away 100,000 ebooks. If an author gave away 50,000 ebooks and sold 50,000 at $2.99 with a royalty of $2/ebook, the author would net $100,000. If the author gave away no ebooks but sold 100,000 at $1.99 with a royalty of $1/ebook, the author would net $100,000. It might be easier to sell 50,000 ebooks at $2.99 than 100,000 at $1.99.

Of course, this comparison is academic because, in reality, ebooks priced below $2.99 only receive 35% royalty on Amazon's KDP. To make $100,000 on an ebook priced at $1.99, the author would have to sell close to 300,000 ebooks.

A simpler example would be giving away 10,000 free books and selling 1,000 at $2.99 with a royalty of 70%. The total number of downloads would be 11,000 and the profit made would be $2,093. If such a promotion worked four times a year (only five days free promotion allowed in a 90-day period), 44,000 books would be downloaded and earn the author $8,732.

I am totally in the dark. I have one ebook - Arirang at $2.99. I have one .99 ebook story, The Valentine. I have one anthology ebook at $2.99, Amour. Apparently, Arirang can't be promoted at Amazon because it's available at Google. Anyone with any suggestions?

My other ebook, Ghost Orchid, is controlled by the publisher.

If Arirang isn't selling any copies on Google, remove it.

I can't even get to where I can remove them from google. Can't find it. All I can do is see the book to buy it. GRRRR. It's been a long time. The book they have is from PA - and PA isn't printing Arirang anymore. It should be gone on its own.

It says "no ebook available":

http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Arirang.html?id=h2PujWT5NScC&redir_esc=y

It's listed for free here:

http://ebookee.org/Arirang-The-Bamboo-Connection_1325612.html

and here:

http://www.ccebook.org/preview/142414776X/Arirang-The-Bamboo-Connection

and here:

http://booklens.com/d-k-christi/arirang?ref=related

Log in to Google book partner here to remove the book:

Google Book Partner

I finally sent google and email. I couldn't get rid of it. The book isn't even in print! Thanks for the info. I hope all those who have it for free are enjoying it!

Here's a discussion on another forum. One participant categorizes price points for e-books.
http://www.kboards.com/index.php/topic,149060.0/topicseen.html

Two very interesting posts, Al: Robert Michael's summation and Joe Nobody's comment about his sales. Four of his books sell between 2000-3000 copies per month @ $9.99. Taking the average of 2,500, royalties = $18,730 (2,500 x $7.49)/month.

I checked out all his books (eight); the Kindle editions range in price between $5.99-$9.99.

Another author talks about his sales:

http://futurebook.net/content/white-glove-and-me

alice wrote:

Facebook makes me laugh. Everyone is so concerned about their privacy rights.
I am not. I wrote a book and no one wants it. I put only what I want the whole world to know.

I wanted your book and I got it!

dmondeo wrote:

alice wrote:

Facebook makes me laugh. Everyone is so concerned about their privacy rights.
I am not. I wrote a book and no one wants it. I put only what I want the whole world to know.

I wanted your book and I got it!

Thank you, David. You are brave.