To be fair, she had passion, niche, and a huge conglomerate of people with loads of disposable income (aka NYC) at her disposal. The same shop in a smaller city would likely not survive.
That's the beauty of cities: they made the long tail possible well before the Internet.
The mid-list publishing industry has taken an enormous beating. There used to be a lot more people who made a living writing; now, the split between best seller or writing around a day job is much more pronounced.
That's the beauty of cities: they made the long tail possible well before the Internet.