Post AjQ7hGDFJ7qwqPrVJ2 by jonhendry@iosdev.space
 (DIR) More posts by jonhendry@iosdev.space
 (DIR) Post #AjOwmZvS9IxcmFueg4 by ZachWeinersmith@mastodon.social
       2024-06-28T23:19:01Z
       
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       A really striking thing reading Wodehouse's letters-- at one point, mid-career he's very excited one of his books sold 10k copies on day one. What's interesting is today that would be solid but nothing wild. But then again, back in Wodehouse's era, people weren't locked in idiotic competition to get pre-orders and game the bestseller lists.And yet it's surprising because this is a man of wealth and luxury due to writing. All I can figure is the additional money from magazines was huge.
       
 (DIR) Post #AjOy4zEyrpa4SOO8hs by Stev_Squared@mathstodon.xyz
       2024-06-28T23:33:29Z
       
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       @ZachWeinersmith I wonder if the margins were much bigger on each individual book. Printing and binding a copy was certainly a lot more expensive back then, so selling 10,000 copies might have been a tidy sum.
       
 (DIR) Post #AjP1MJRFKDelsv4vya by NorwayJose@geekdom.social
       2024-06-29T00:10:18Z
       
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       @ZachWeinersmith Writers used to make quite a comfortable living from stories and serialized novels in magazines and newspapers.  The documentary about Kurt Vonnegut (Unstuck in Time) mentioned how hard it was for him to adjust to fewer magazines publishing fiction since he took so long to write his novels.
       
 (DIR) Post #AjPA9bb7Ohfw1liC5g by ucblockhead@hulvr.com
       2024-06-29T01:48:50Z
       
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       @ZachWeinersmith If what I read is accurate, a book back then might have sold for $1 and royalties were 15% or more ,   That's $1500 in a day.   Not bad when a lawyer would expect $1200 in a year.https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044093010528&seq=37https://libraryguides.missouri.edu/pricesandwages/1900-1909https://victorianweb.org/authors/dickens/pva/pva77.htmlGiven population sizes, and the markets being more regional, 10k was probably a much bigger percentage of the market.
       
 (DIR) Post #AjPKEmwFeugiBqhsuG by robinadams@mathstodon.xyz
       2024-06-29T03:41:50Z
       
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       @ZachWeinersmith Wikipedia tells me that novels on the NYT bestsellers lost sell "1000 - 10000 copies per week". So 10000 copies in a day would still be extremely good today.
       
 (DIR) Post #AjQ7hGDFJ7qwqPrVJ2 by jonhendry@iosdev.space
       2024-06-29T12:56:02Z
       
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       @ZachWeinersmith Where were those sales? Was that UK only? That might be a bigger number than you think.
       
 (DIR) Post #AjQ9xCKJisdXKlterI by kentwillard@zirk.us
       2024-06-29T13:21:18Z
       
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       @ZachWeinersmith I'm surprised that serialized fiction hasn't returned. Particularly if issues are in small enough slices to fit in social media's short attention span.