Nib asked for
Why Books Got Cheap
Once one set of type could produce hundreds of copies with far less labor per page, the cost of each book fell sharply, though paper remained a major expense.
5 steps, drawn by Nib. Read it here, or watch him draw it. Updated .
1hand copying
A scribe's cost was almost all labor: every page of every copy had to be written out by hand, so the second copy cost nearly as much as the first. Copying a Bible could occupy a skilled worker for many months, and the price reflected that time.
With hand copying, every copy costs the same labor all over again.
a common mix-upPeople assume making more copies naturally makes each one cheaper; with hand copying it did not.
2work once
Printing moves the big effort to the front. A shop spends time setting the letters into a page once, and pays for the metal type once. After that, one set of type can print hundreds of identical pages, so that setup cost gets divided among all of them.
Print pays the big setup cost once, then spreads it over every copy.
3letters reused
Add the press itself: inking and pressing a sheet takes far less skilled labor than writing it out. Type is also reusable. When a job is done, the letters are taken apart and set again for the next page, so the metal is not used up.
The labor per page drops, and the type is reused for the next job.
4price drop
So the cost of a book fell sharply within a few decades. Compare the price of a printed book in the late 1400s with a handwritten one, and printed copies were often a small fraction of the cost. Books moved from something only a rich institution could afford toward something students, merchants, and townspeople could buy, though broad ownership came later.
Prices fell sharply, widening the buyers beyond the very rich; mass ownership came later.
a common mix-upCheaper did not mean everyone owned books right away; early buyers were mostly clergy, universities, merchants, and the wealthy.
If a shop prints 500 copies instead of 50, what happens to the setup cost carried by each copy?
Show the answer
It shrinks: the same one-time setup is shared among ten times as many copies.
5paper stays
One cost did not shrink the same way: paper. Each copy still needed its own sheets, and paper made from rags was a major expense, often a large share of what a book cost. Printing erased most of the labor cost, but you still had to buy materials for every single copy.
Paper stayed a major cost, because every copy still needs its own sheets.
Print made the effort of making a book a one-time cost instead of a cost paid again with every copy, and that is why books reached far more people.