Think if the only books you could get were leather bound hard covers with gilt edges. Pretty yes, but expensive.
While the ones we have left are mostly on parchment most of the books of the time, especially the pop fiction, was written on papyrus. No cheap paper, no pop fiction to sell to the masses. No cheap pop fiction for the masses, no profit. Writers would have gone back to story telling. Which would have meant no new books for the publishing houses to put out.
A good story is always worth a drink and maybe a meal...