A month ago, I read author Amie McNee’s article about how her guest spot on a major podcast didn’t increase sales of her book, We Need Your Art, published by Penguin Random House in March 2025. McNee’s takeaway message: that creative success rarely comes from big breaks but more often from showing up consistently and collecting small wins over time. I admire how she’s framed the experience, and I believe she’s correct.
However, the businessperson in me can’t stop thinking about why the book didn’t enjoy a perceptible sales bump; I also keep thinking about how the article’s headline, taken out of context, can lead to conclusions like “No one buys books anymore” or proclamations that something is broken about book publishing. Certainly nonfiction sales have been soft for years now, and this may be just one more symptom of that malaise. But I suspect other factors are at play here.
Fortunately for all of us, McNee has been wholly transparent from the start about how her sales have been going. She sold 3,487 copies in her first week and about 12,000 copies over the first three months. Her Instagram following is about half a million; she has a Substack with 26,000 subscribers. In other words, she has a platform most authors would kill for. Some might think such a platform would lead to more sales. As I see it, sales so far align with her online presence. I expect 1 to 5 percent of social media followers to buy the book. Longtime email subscribers convert at a higher percentage; she started her Substack in 2024, probably to support her book launch. So she’s right on track.
That brings me to the podcast. She was on Jay Shetty’s On Purpose, a top-ranked mental health podcast. Jay Shetty’s bestselling book is Think Like a Monk, and people who follow him are mindfulness and personal-growth seekers and people facing anxiety or life stress. Some of his episodes have titles like “The #1 Question to Ask before You End a Relationship (THIS Episode Will Give You the Clarity You Have Been Looking For!)” and “Big Sean: Stop Wishing & Start Manifesting (THIS is the Secret Formula to Making Your Dreams a REALITY).” The most popular videos on his YouTube channel are primarily about relationships. Recent guests include Novak Djokovic, rapper Big Sean, Dr. Mark Hyman, and Jimmy Kimmel.
I see few indications that Shetty’s listeners are the type of people who have existential trouble pursuing their art or creative-writing life. McNee and Jay Shetty certainly have a similar vibe: warmth and accessibility, wellness-influencer aesthetic, and emotional positivity. But Shetty’s key demographic isn’t artists and writers; they appear to be a broad ranging self-improvement crowd.
That brings me to the next hurdle: McNee’s book is available as a $30 hardcover or $15.99 ebook. That’s a lot of money to spend if you’re not already a McNee devotee and don’t feel you absolutely need the book beyond the takeaways in the podcast conversation. Perhaps some interested listeners decided to add the book to a wishlist or put it on hold at the library. (It would be interesting to see whether library activity surrounding the book picked up after the podcast or whether some folks decided to mark the audiobook on Spotify for later listening. Maybe some of this activity will show up later and McNee will share it.) McNee also revealed that she didn’t see a follower or subscriber bump after the podcast, which leads me to believe that there’s simply not a good fit with Shetty’s audience. She’s not addressing a need or problem they have; this is not their area of suffering.
So what would sell more books? To be clear, I don’t think it was a mistake or waste of time for McNee to appear on Jay Shetty’s podcast. She could potentially reap the benefits for years to come. It only takes reaching one or two people who are interested in your message to offer you an opportunity that is a better fit or otherwise lifts your profile: e.g., I’m writing about the situation and reaching an audience that I’d consider a better fit for her message. But if I were brainstorming how to get McNee in front of the most appropriate audience, I’d try to find a way to partner her up with someone like Julia Cameron, Anne Lamott, Austin Kleon, or another beacon of light for artists and writers dealing with self-sabotage and the stress of our current sociopolitical environment. I’d want to see her speaking to large groups of young writers, like at AWP. She’d likely be a great keynote for countless writing conferences, and those people buy books.
Bottom line: I’ll close with words from McNee: “Devote yourself to making your incredible creations, then devote yourself to connecting with your audience on your own terms, in your own spaces, on your own terms. The halo effect is not a business model. Chasing these ‘big break moments’ is not a sustainable or useful way to build your life as a creator. We have our own platforms. We have direct contact audiences. We have power. We must use them.”
McNee has a historical novel releasing from Penguin Random House in November, so I assume her focus will soon be shifting to that. I can’t wait to see her reports on how that book sells and performs relative to the nonfiction book. If I had to guess, the nonfiction—where she has a sizable platform—will outperform it to start.
Sept. 10, 2025 update: I was delighted to see that Michelle Glogovac, founder of a podcast PR agency, offered her take, which I highly recommend reading. In a nutshell: Shetty releases a lot of content, he may not have read the book, and the overall framing of the episode may not have been in McNee’s favor.
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.
