What is Charles's occupation?

Answer 1

Charles Dickens was an author, but he was also a very shrewd businessman. When he wrote Great Expectations, it was released as a serial (pieces of it were released every week, which people usually paid very little for), and people paid more than they would have had they bought it as a book (it is said that Dickens invented the soap Opera and paper back book - his method of ending novels with cliffhangers made people want to buy the next installment of his book, and he eliminated the major cost of printing books during the Victorian era - the wooden covers by printing on regular paper for the entire book). Once the book was released, the story was released in a hardback, which people often bought because they wanted to have the novel all together, not the scattered paper back pieces that they had bought earlier. After that, Dickens had people go door to door to try to buy back people who had the entire collection of Great Expectations, which was then used to make another book, a "deluxe edition" that was advertised to use the original copies of the book. Dickens had at this point, sold people the same book three times!