Hello /r/AskHistorians, I hope my first question to this wonderful subreddit passes muster.
I have just begun to read How Jesus Became God by historian of early Christianity Bart Ehrman, and have been interested (and amused) by his discussion of ancient authors such as the satirist Lucian (c. 125 CE - 180 CE)
How were authors/thinkers/etc. such as Lucian "published" in the ancient Mediterranean world, and was there a significant "readership" for such works either locally or beyond?
To expand on this question, were Romans like Lucian (who apparently described himself as "Assyrian" and wrote in a dialect of Greek) ever translated into other languages such as Latin in their own day?
Thank you!
Publishing in the Ancient World was a bit of a chaotic process. It mostly involved preparing your work for publication by going through an editing process (Cicero edited his letters before publication, for example), writing up a tidy version and then handing it out to friends and, perhaps, book sellers.
I'll paraphrase from a good article by John Phillips called "Atticus and the Publication of Cicero's Works" (The Classical World; Vol. 79, No. 4).
There was no copyright, so once a work became editus ('published') it pretty much took on a life of its own. It could be repackaged in any way a book seller saw fit; copied from a second hand or third hand copy and resold. There was no royalty system and no expectation that an author could get rich directly from selling their works - perhaps only that in their popularity they might be patronised by a rich Patron or at least get their name out so further opportunities might come their way.
EDIT: Sorry, obviously this is more of an answer to your question in the title instead of your specific ones in text underneath.