Inside a BOOK auction

This is Planet Money from NPR. For a long time, whenever I entered the cozy refuge of an independent bookstore, I couldn't help but suspect that there was this whole hidden world, this whole economy lurking behind the bookshelves. And I know in the era of TikTok and polymarket and video podcasting, it can be easy to overlook the humble book. But it is undeniable. Books are one of the most influential technologies ever. From The Wealth of Nations and Das Kapital to The Art of the Deal or Dreams for My Father, books can make us all lean in one day, or suddenly everyone you know is finding life changing magic and tidying up. Even if you haven't picked up a book in years, the forces that shape the marketplace for books have the power to shape everything else in your life. They shape the ideas that make it to the masses. So last year, when my boss informed the team in an editorial meeting that the Planet Money book, which had been in the works for a while, was now hurtling toward publication, I found myself leaning in. The question on my boss's mind was this, would anyone on the team like to report out how the book got made to see what it might tell us about the business of books? Would anyone raise their hand? And when I heard the call to tell the tale of the Planet Money book, what do you think I did? Reader, I raised it. Hello, and welcome to Planet Money. I'm Alexei Horwitz Ghazi. We live in a world built by books, and yet the economic machine that produces them is shrouded in mystery. The ways in which the invisible hand determines what books actually get made. Today on the show, the first episode in our series. Planet Money sets out to land a book deal and gets to go backstage to see everything that happens behind the shadowy curtain of the publishing industry. And we see what happens when lofty artistic ideals meet the cold logic of the market. There will be whale fights, corporate speed dating, and a literary shotgun wedding. Okay. So I'd accepted the mission to tell the tale of the Planet Money book. And in order to figure out where it came from, I started with the man who keeps the Planet Money solar system spinning every week. I am Alex Goldmark. I am the executive producer of Planet Money. And in that role, it is my job to decide on the structure of the big projects we do, the business side of Planet Money. And I guess for disclosure's sake, we should also say you are my boss. That is true. Or you're actually you're my boss's boss. You're kinda my grand boss. Oh, ouch. But okay. Yeah. Sure. I think it's cool. Longtime listeners may recall Planet Money's habit for participatory projects. We made a t shirt and followed all the underlying economic …