Absolutely, but it was completely profitable for the author. Alexandre Dumas earned about 10,000 francs ($65,743 today) per installment when he was poached from The Presse by The Constitutionnel in 1845. And it's estimated he was making about that much per installment writing The Count of Monte Cristo. People followed it like it was Game of Thrones!

(More on that here if you're interested: https://ellegriffin.substack.com/p/publishing-industry-truth