11–20 of 59 posts
> With a peak circulation of forty thousand—enormous for its time
How was it possible to make a living - I imagine a full editorial team, writers, printers, office workers - with this volume of sales, while today, magazines with zero distribution cost, and with millions of subscribers are going under. Were magazines insanely more expensive at the time? What gives?
OK so there is a better angle to look at all this, there really is: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/357868645_Edgar_All...
I think you may be missing the point. This post was an absolute joy to read.
A little tangent, but > With a peak circulation of forty thousand—enormous for its time How was it possible to make a living - I imagine a full editorial team, writers, printers, office workers - with this volume of sales, while today, magazines with zero distribution cost, and with millions of subscribers are going under. Were magazines insanely more expensive at the time? What gives?
A little tangent, but > With a peak circulation of forty thousand—enormous for its time How was it possible to make a living - I imagine a full editorial team, writers, printers, office workers - with this volume of sales, while today, magazines with zero distribution cost, and with millions of subscribers are going under. Were magazines insanely more expensive at the time? What gives?
The standard of living was much lower and people’s expectations of reasonable income were lower too. It was common in those days for blue collar workers to do 12 hours of hard physical labor and live in cramped conditions with multiple people per room. What we would now consider worse than a homeless shelter.
In comparison just working a desk job was already a luxury. Even if you were barely making ends meet
Quick Google search says a newspaper writer would make $400 to $800 per year in Poe’s time. That is about $20k/year in today’s money, which is just above poverty level
A little tangent, but > With a peak circulation of forty thousand—enormous for its time How was it possible to make a living - I imagine a full editorial team, writers, printers, office workers - with this volume of sales, while today, magazines with zero distribution cost, and with millions of subscribers are going under. Were magazines insanely more expensive at the time? What gives?
A little tangent, but > With a peak circulation of forty thousand—enormous for its time How was it possible to make a living - I imagine a full editorial team, writers, printers, office workers - with this volume of sales, while today, magazines with zero distribution cost, and with millions of subscribers are going under. Were magazines insanely more expensive at the time? What gives?
> Were magazines insanely more expensive at the time? What gives? The standard of living was much lower and people’s expectations of reasonable income were lower too. It was common in those days for blue collar workers to do 12 hours of hard physical labor and live in cramped conditions with multiple people per room. What we would now consider worse than a homeless shelter. In comparison just working a desk job was a…
OK so there is a better angle to look at all this, there really is: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/357868645_Edgar_All...
OK so there is a better angle to look at all this, there really is: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/357868645_Edgar_All...
That's terribly bad. Badly written, barely three pages long, bad references... Half of the list of references are of himself, but almost all of the references in the text are just from one book from 1965. And lots of affirmations of that text aren't unsustained or don't make sense. Terribly bad angle.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Were magazines insanely more expensive at the time? What gives? The standard of living was much lower and people’s expectations of reasonable income were lower too. It was common in those days for blue collar workers to do 12 hours of hard physical labor and live in cramped conditions with multiple people per room. What we would now consider worse than a homeless shelter. In comparison just working a desk job was a…
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.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Were magazines insanely more expensive at the time? What gives? The standard of living was much lower and people’s expectations of reasonable income were lower too. It was common in those days for blue collar workers to do 12 hours of hard physical labor and live in cramped conditions with multiple people per room. What we would now consider worse than a homeless shelter. In comparison just working a desk job was a…
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.
Plus ça change...