BOOKstore Economics

Key Takeaways

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  Guest: Fischer Nash, book buyer at Carmichael’s Bookstore

  “I am the book buyer. I am the one who meets with sales reps from publishers, and I'm the one who decides which new books we're going to bring in, how many, and where they will go.”

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  The Bookstore as Real Estate: Every shelf is a high-stakes commercial puzzle where inventory decisions are driven by square footage as much as literary merit.

  “It really is like a real estate puzzle that you're solving all the time... it's a small store, so we really have to figure out where things are going to go.”

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  The Rule of Four: Retailers use specific inventory thresholds to trigger visibility; four copies is the minimum 'buy-in' to graduate from a spine-out shelf to a high-traffic display table.

  “Four copies. That is the minimum number they need to qualify for the display table... this is sort of like the most prominent billboard or placement in the store.”

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  The Social Media Threshold: In the eyes of a professional book buyer, an author's follower count only begins to impact inventory volume once it hits the 'millions' mark.

  “Anything in the millions I pay attention to... because if only 1% of your audience buys your book, that's 10,000 people, which is a lot.”

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  The Physics of Friction: Beyond content, the physical dimensions and page counts of a book act as hidden 'taxes' on retail space, often limiting the quantity ordered for long-form titles.

  “If it is 1,200 pages, I'm thinking even if I want a lot of it, I'm going to bring fewer into the store because it takes up so much room.”

Episode Description

How do bookstores choose the books they stock, and how does that affect what customers read? It may not seem like it, but every shelf in a bookstore is a highly valuable and contested piece of commercial real estate. And for every new book that a bookstore decides to stock, there are thousands of others that did not make the cut. So how do bookstores make those decisions? And how will the Planet Money book fare under the discerning eyes of the booksellers, the final gatekeepers in the long gauntlet of the publishing industry? Today on the show: the third episode in our series. Planet Money sets out to actually sell a book. We burrow behind the bookstore shelves to learn the secret codes that publishers use to try to convince booksellers to carry the book, from little mom and pops to airport juggernauts. There will be corporate intelligence networks, bargain bin shenanigans, and a giant industrial saw chewing up books by the thousands. Call it Pulp Non-fiction. Related: - Fisher Nash’s Substack - Episode 1: Inside a BOOK auction - Episode 2: Our BOOK vs. the global supply chain  - Series: Planet Money makes a book Live show tour and book info. / Subscribe to Planet Money+ Listen free: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the NPR app or anywhere you get podcasts. Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Our weekly Newsletter. This episode was produced by Willa Rubin with help from Emma Peaslee. It was edited by Jess Jiang, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and engineered by Robert Rodriguez. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.  Music: NPR Source Audio - “A Peculiar Investigation,” “Round Round,” and “Neighbourhood Watcher.” To manage podcast ad preferences, review the links below: See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences. NPR Privacy Policy