And they would generally sell the authors hundreds of copies of their printed book (because it wasn't economically feasible to do print-on-demand like today), w

And they would generally sell the authors hundreds of copies of their printed book (because it wasn't economically feasible to do print-on-demand like today), which the author was expected to find buyers for. Most didn't, and many people clearing out the houses of dead relatives found dusty boxes of unsold books which cost the relative a lot of money.