Has AI Already Killed How-To Nonfiction? Sales Trends, My Personal Data, and What It Might Mean for the Future - The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss

via Glenn Fleishman (@glennf@zeppelin.flights): Why pay for bad advice

Tim Ferriss opens his own BookScan numbers to argue that LLMs are eating the how-to nonfiction category alive: adult nonfiction down 9% year-over-year in Q1 2026, with self-help down 26.3%. It’s a rare, concrete look at AI disruption hitting an industry in real time rather than in forecasts — and a preview of what happens to any business built on packaging answers people can now just ask for.

Has AI Already Killed How-To Nonfiction? Sales Trends, My Personal Data, and What It Might Mean for the Future - The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss