Comment by michael0church
8 hours ago
Writing professionally was basically gambling in the 19th century. An “advance” was a loan from your printer and you paid it back even if the book failed.
8 hours ago
Writing professionally was basically gambling in the 19th century. An “advance” was a loan from your printer and you paid it back even if the book failed.
> Writing professionally was basically gambling in the 19th century.
Plus ça change...
I was reading about 19th century Russian writers recently. Very few of them made much money and some like Turgenev and Tolstoy were personally wealthy.
Chekhov went from rags to riches. But this was closer to the end of the century.