Tim Ferriss published an article last week revealing his book sales performance over the last several years; he argues that the current decline in self-help book sales is related to people’s growing use of AI.
Long story short, his print sales dipped 57 percent from 2024 to 2025, and it’s looking even worse this year. All formats combined, his sales were still down 45 percent in the second half of the year.
Ferriss writes, “My agent, who has decades of statements to compare against, put it bluntly: 2025 was the first big drop, 2026 looks more severe, and the only thing that’s really changed in that timeframe is the acceleration of AI. … Some publishers point to the growth of YouTube and podcasts, and those certainly contribute, but I think they are relative rounding errors.”
His full post, along with the comments, is worth reading, especially if you’re in a prescriptive nonfiction category. He believes authors and publishers will need to leverage and focus on experiences rather than information and help very targeted groups achieve transformation.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
