Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi

Now, running an independent bookstore, Fisher explains, is a game of thin margins.

Order too few copies of a popular new book, and you'll be depriving your store of much-needed financial lifeblood.

Order too many, and you'll be clogging up coveted shelf space that could be holding more lucrative titles.

So you're kind of the risk-taker around here.

Every book that Fisher does consider taking a bet on has to make it through a series of hurdles, a kind of existential decision tree, before they can land a place in Carmichael's bookstore.

The first question Fisher asks, should they buy any copies of the book at all?

It really is like a real estate puzzle that you're solving all the time.

Looking around the store, this scarcity issue is clear.

The whole place is around 1,800 square feet divided into two rooms, which means Fisher's got to make some tough calls.

For those that do make the cut...

Or should Fisher order two copies, knowing that doubling down can actually make a book more visible to passing customers?

If Fisher wants to up the ante, the next biggest bet would be to buy a total of four copies.

That is the minimum number they need to qualify for the display table.

This is a table right in the center of the store where a very lucky selection of new books are stacked several copies high,

So this is sort of like the most prominent billboard or placement in the store?

This is like the Holy Grail.

Or at least on the path towards the holiest grail of all.

Is that the shelf right behind us?

Fisher and I turn around and right there in front of us, like a wooden shrine to the almighty book market, was a real physical encapsulation of the bestseller list in one bookshelf.

At the top, a little festive banner proclaims bestsellers 20% off.