As a throw-away statement, he referred to the fact that losing money on his books factors in the time he spent (and, presumably, the money he could have made do

As a throw-away statement, he referred to the fact that losing money on his books factors in the time he spent (and, presumably, the money he could have made doing other things). I'm not sure I buy that means of estimation, given the way he also informed his readers of his tendency to get himself into crushing debt and nigh-homelessness even when he wasn't writing, but if you accept his premise that his time could have been more (directly) lucratively spent, he does in fact kinda-sorta "lose" money through the writing process itself, regardless of what it costs to publish.