Early printers shifted book production from commission to speculation
Evidence
The printer, although he may have had a few customers in mind, had to speculate how many buyers might be found for 300, 500 or 1,000 copies, and where those buyers might be. … Underestimating demand would rob the printer of additional profit; overestimating demand was financially lethal, as investment had been sunk into unsaleable printed sheets. — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 171
Categorization
- corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 171
- XREF: connects to: Early presses printed sheet-by-sheet with no saleable book for months — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 170; Early printers faced lethal financial risk in guessing print run sizes — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 171; Printing collapsed book prices to roughly parchment-market value levels — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 182 (+4 more)
Broader Connections
- Cheap reformation pamphlets drew new buyers into book ownership
#expands(0.60) — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 231 - Purchase registers reveal the sixteenth-century international book trade
#corroborates(0.35) — Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen, The Library- A Fragile History, 211