Three Changes a Best-Selling Author Is Making After Post-AI Sales (I'm Stealing Them Too)
28 Jun 2026 #writingIn 2025, his book sales dropped by 46%.
That’s what Tim Ferriss discovered when he looked at his spreadsheets. The smoking gun: ChatGPT’s release around 2022, when his sales started to decrease.
And that’s the landscape for a best-selling author. Now imagine being a mere mortal without Tim’s reach.
Here are some of the changes Tim is making—and how I’m stealing them:
Rely on personal stories
“For my books, at least, the secret sauce is in the sequencing—the logical ordering of things—plus the deeply personal stories that actually catalyze people to change long-standing habits.”
LLMs can spit out facts, but they’ll never create personal stories.
As Maria Popova said, “AI can’t suffer.” It can’t have human experience. Love, hate, pride, resentment… That’s how we can fight back.
With my books, the best reward has been reading comments like “it feels like a conversation” or “refreshing, given how much AI slop has populated the internet.” Those are the reviews that make my day.
As a guideline, if AI can write it, rewrite it.
Stick to written words
“I’d rather write books for 10,000 people who are genuinely changed by them than crank out short-form videos for 10 million people who forget about them within days or minutes.”
The other day, a fiction author I followed on LinkedIn shared her new strategy: Going to TikTok or BookTok.
Just like Tim, I’d rather write books for a few than dance on TikTok. Maybe I’ll start a YouTube channel to go over my posts. But writing is my way to go, even if only one person reads.
The best place is the one you can sustain over time.
Build a tribe
“Find your 1,000 True Fans. If you started off doing this well but have meandered, it’s time to revisit. Get very clear on who those 1,000 people are.”
1,000 fans? That sounds distant. And followers aren’t true fans.
To build my tribe, I’m writing for one person: my past self. I’m writing the books I wish I had. I’m leaving breadcrumbs as I document my life. For anyone just like me years ago.