And the economics of paper books are especially problematic.
Ebooks, once you've got the book up for sale at the various vendors (Amazon being the most important for most, but Deseret Book might have figured into things for Chad as well) then the only expenses are whatever marketing expenses (advertising, etc) that you do. Getting to that point you've got expenses (editing, proofreading, formatting, cover design) that potentially could, depending on your skills, not require money out of pocket. For example, Chad might have done the editing of his author's books, meaning there wasn't money going out to provide an editor. Chad and Tammy could potentially have gotten an ebook to market with minimal or maybe even no expenses. (Whether that is smart or the best way to go is another discussion, but it is possible.)
But for paper books an investment is almost for sure going to be required. It is possible to have a paper book available just at Amazon where it it POD (print on demand) and the books are created one at a time as needed. But the cost of each book means the profit margin is going to be slim on a paper book sold this way. It also doesn't work if you want the book to be available in brick and mortar bookstores like Deseret Book. There you've got to print some large number of books which means a sunk investment that turns into a financial loss if the books don't sell. Having a bunch of money tied up in paper books that Chad intended to sell through the two small chains I mentioned before and then having those chains stop carrying those books, as appears to have happened, could have a seriously negative financial impact.