Alexi Horowitz-Ghazi

Will the author be going on TV or showing up in any podcasts?

Could they potentially get on Fresh Air?

Terry Gross, for a long time, has been kind of the Moby Dick of book publicity.

Each entry also lists the physical dimensions of the book, which Fisher says can affect whether it'll physically fit onto the shelves in the store.

So another thing that matters?

The page count.

And you're wondering, like, how many people are going to sign up for a 1,200-page book?

The Carthage book is right in that sweet spot at 368 pages.

And another very important piece of information that Fisher will often look for in the metadata is the size of the publisher's first print run.

What does the print run tell you?

If a publisher prints a lot of copies for a book's first print run, say 100,000, that's an indicator they think it'll sell well and that Fisher might want to get in on the action.

The next piece of information in a book's catalog entry is whether booksellers like Fisher can return the book.

So it kind of hedges the risk that you might be taking by ordering this book.

Exactly.

Publishers themselves assume the risk for books that do not sell.

Because bookstores can return unsold inventory back to the publishers and essentially get their money back.

Which, if you think about it, is pretty wild.

Usually the retailers assume the risk.

Like, Vaughn's supermarket buys orange juice from Tropicana, but if they fail to sell those cartons to customers, it's on Vaughn's to figure out how to recoup their losses.

Publishing is different from basically every other industry out there.