There is a lot of writing on the internet that's done for free with no profit motive. Both fiction and nonfiction.

Paying the editors is the bigger issue than paying the authors

...yes? The median book sells ~3,000 copies, ever. But people keep writing them!

Most libraries probably don't stock many books like that. They'd just waste shelf space until they get discarded in the end.

I think most authors believe their book to be better than the median. At least when they start writing it.