[Trenien]

I've got so many things to say to that, I'm not sure where to begin...

Ok, first, about Doctorow and Gaiman. Sure, the later was famous before but as far as I know - and I've taken a few minutes to look it up - Doctorow became famous because of the model he's chosen.

This being said, and before I comment on each of your points specifically.

On one side, you have an abundance of goods ready to consume both of your ressources: books, movies, music, you name it. Note that for each of these, digital version are available. Furthermore, getting access to darknet versions is pretty much trivial, which means you can access all of these for free, but it may take a while (time-factor, it's important).
Again, I'm not arguing morals either way, but don't forget that beside the illegal releases of goods you're supposed to pay for, there are quite a lot of things their author release for free. The easier it is to make on your own, the more you find things their authors released for free

On the other side, there are things that for most people are very much in a finite amount: money and leisure time. That means that when you pay for something to use during that time, you want to waste neither. So what happens?

If you pay for something, you want to make sure you're not wasting your money or, more specifically, you want to make sure the money you spend will be worth your time
. Or you may take the risk of wasting your time, but in that case, you'll go down the cheapest path.

Ok, so why is this relevant? on to the comments.

Originally Posted by Steve Jordan

Yes, earning money is good. I simply meant I'd rather make money with my stories... and I don't care if they're bound in paper.

I do realize that such people may recommend me to others...

We are here exactly in the situation I described above: why would anybody pay to read one of your books in ebook form:
- They don't know how good you are and as you're "self-published", they know you didn't go through the process of being screened by an editor. They are quite a few authors in the same spot relative to them who offer their books for free. So far, the only plus you may have over them is that you have a dedicated site and properly formated ebook.
- Word of mouth works only if you have a fanbase. If your fans may only be people who bought ebooks from you, that can only devellop veeery slowly (at best).
No offense meant, but I've never read any of your books, nor do I intend to do so (Unknown+money to spend). On the other hand, there are at least ten authors I've known through fanfiction whose book (original or otherwise) I'd buy without a second thought.

but so do people who pay for books, who, I might add, may be a bit more discerning about a product they had to pay for.

I honestly doubt that. And even if it's true, you don't want discerning people as an author. You want people who either like what you write, or at the very least don't shoot it down when speaking of it to others.
Whether you paid or not for a book won't change your ability to tell if what you're reading is crap or not. It may change your mood about it. Case in point, a few months ago, I downloaded the "Catastrophe's Spell' ebook the author had made available, and didn't find it to my liking (to the point I stopped reading it after the first couple of chapters). I may go back to it at one point or the other, but I doubt it. That said, I'll never tell anybody it's utter crap - I don't think it is - and may pass the file around for people to make their own mind about it.
On the other hand, a few years ago I bought a pbook from one author whose name I'll charitably not mention here. That book was crap. Because I paid for it, I read it to the end, which angered me even more. Now that author I'll never buy another book from, and I'll make damn sure everybody around me knows my feeling about him and about what he commits to paper.

In addition, on this forum we've heard from plenty of people who have obtained an e-book without paying for it, but have not gone out and bought the printed book... even when they said they planned to. So, having someone read a book for free doesn't guarantee a single sale, either.

Ah, the point isn't that somebody who read and liked the book is going to automatically buy it. The point is that the book is going to get passed around, and among those who read it, some will buy it, and others from the same author. Again, word of mouth. The easiest it is to pass a book around, the fastest word of mouth about it and its author goes.

It's not only the two writers I've quoted who say it: the worst thing for an author isn't that somebody is reading his book(s) without paying for it, it's that nobody is reading his books.

Life's too short, and I'm just one guy. I'd rather concentrate on paying customers, and numbers I can track, instead of invisibles I can't track.

It's good enough for me, as it's just supplementary income at this point. Since I don't have to do this just to pay my mortgage, it's cool. If someday I decide I need more, I would find a publisher, patron, or advertiser, set up a contract, spend all my time writing, and that would be my life. In the future, it just might be.

Slight problem. Readers are only a percentage of the population and among them those, such as us, who read through an electronic medium are an even smaller part. And (in my opinion) you're making things even harder for yourself right now.

May I ask which order of magnitude the income you get from your books is right now, over one year - tens? Hundreds? Thousands?
Do note that whatever the answer is, I don't think it has much to do with the quality of what you write.

For me, this is future speculation: "Let's see if I can get this to pay off during my golden years." It's not panning out yet... neither did a lot of authors, who took years to make it big enough to give up their day jobs. But I've got time to try a few things and see what works, and if I play my cards right, I might at least earn a nice supplementary nest egg for retirement. No pressure.

So if I understand properly (and from your signature), you believe that in the future most people will read ebooks instead of pbooks. I don't disagree with that, but I don't think that it'll be sufficient, in itself, to generate sales for you.