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I was afraid that this book sold out very fast.

I was afraid that this book would sell out very fast.

Are both sentences correct? What is the meaning each one convey?

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    Your first example is invalid as a past tense utterance, but note that present tense I am afraid that this book sold out very fast is perfectly natural English. It's an idiom, used in polite/formal contexts - for example, by a bookseller apologizing to a customer who wants to buy a book, but there are none left in stock because they sold quicker than expected. Your second example sounds like something a potential customer might say, with the implication that if he wants t buy a copy he'd better hurry up, otherwise the bookshop will have sold out.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Aug 23, 2023 at 14:22
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    The idiom I'm afraid that X [is true] is equivalent to I regret to inform you that X is true.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Aug 23, 2023 at 14:24

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I was afraid....

At some time in the past, I feared something.

What did you fear?

*...that this book sold out very fast

No, you cannot be afraid of something that happened in the past. You must be afraid of something that could happen soon, in the future.

Your fear was that the book "will sell out" very fast.

Those words in quotes were your exact words at the time. You said it to everyone. "That book will sell out, I know it. I won't be able to buy that book. Darn! That book will sell out. I am so unlucky!"

But now, you are telling us about the fear you had, and you are not quoting your exact words, and you therefore must change "will" to "would".

I feared that the book would sell out very fast.

That is how to talk about your fear of a future event, when the fear was something you felt in the past.

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"afraid" has a variety of non-literal meanings.

It is sometimes used just as a form of apology. So "I'm afraid that this book sold out" is roughly the same as "I'm sorry. This book sold out". But that requires a present tense "afraid".

In the past it can express a concern that may not be realised. Consistency of tense means you should use would: "I was afraid that this book would sell out" = I was worried that this book would sell out." In context you would understand if the book had really sold out or not.

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I was afraid that this book sold out

is ungrammatical. If the book sold out at some point before the present, your past self may or may not know that; to be meaningful, everything your past self thought about has to be relative to that moment in the past.

I was afraid that this book would sell out

is valid, and

I was afraid that this book had sold out

is valid, but the meanings are different. The first expresses uncertainty about the future in a past reference frame. The second expresses uncertainty about unknown present information in a past reference frame.

Ordinarily, you could say these both in the present too:

I'm afraid that this book will sell out very fast.

I'm afraid that this book has sold out very fast.

But as FumbleFingers points out in a comment, "I'm afraid" is an idiom meaning "I regret to inform you," so you'd have to rephrase to keep the same meaning.

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