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What #1 New York Times Bestseller Actually Means

2025-07-01 · explainer · John · 4:53 · watch on YouTube

Topic: Books & writing · mode: Explainer · tags: self promotion

With Everything Is Tuberculosis 14 weeks on the list, John explains what being a #1 New York Times bestseller means: it measures sales only relative to a category among many lists, most books never get there, and it is a career milestone but not necessarily life-changing money (Paper Towns earned about $35,000 a year); he urges viewers to read both on and off the bestseller list.

What is said

The parts of the video and what is said in each (★ — how much it matters to the video).

00:00:00 — Everything Is Tuberculosis 14 weeks on the NYT list; what does bestseller mean?

00:00:29 — How a #1 happens: NYT tabulation, pre-orders and signed copies, category lists, the Hunger Games book, hundreds of #1s a year, Walmart

  • ★★ John says Everything Is Tuberculosis is a #1 bestseller because for its first couple of weeks it was the best-selling nonfiction book in the US by the Times' count. — 00:00:29 · Everything Is Tuberculosis, United States
  • ★★ John says the New York Times' obscure, somewhat opaque tabulations ask lots of bookstores, weighted toward independent ones, what is selling each week. — 00:00:29 · The New York Times
  • ★★ John says his book was almost guaranteed a #1 because he signed over 100,000 copies of the first printing and about 50,000 people pre-ordered it. — 00:00:29 · Everything Is Tuberculosis
  • ★★ John says selling 50,000 books in a single week almost guarantees a #1 New York Times bestseller, unless you are up against something like The Hunger Games. — 00:00:29 · The New York Times
  • ★★ John says the new Hunger Games book came out the same day as his but did not compete, being fiction for kids while his is nonfiction for adults. — 00:00:58 · Everything Is Tuberculosis
  • ★★★ John explains there are many New York Times lists (nonfiction; advice, how-to and miscellaneous; graphic novels; audiobooks), so this week (week of 30 June 2025) alone there are 15 different #1 bestsellers. — 00:00:58 · The New York Times
  • ★★ John says some of this week's (week of 30 June 2025) #1 New York Times bestsellers sell seven or eight thousand copies in a week. — 00:01:27 · The New York Times
  • ★★ John thinks the new Hunger Games book sold 750,000 copies in a week. (hedged) — 00:01:27
  • ★★★ John says being a #1 New York Times bestseller tells you little about sales, only sales relative to the book's category. — 00:01:27 · The New York Times
  • ★★ John says there are hundreds of different #1 New York Times bestsellers each year, so it might seem an unimpressive accomplishment. — 00:01:27 · The New York Times
  • ★★ John says almost every book at Walmart calls itself a #1 New York Times bestseller, but almost no books end up in Walmart. — 00:01:27 · The New York Times

00:01:56 — Most books sell under 5,000 copies; Looking for Alaska and Paper Towns; what a bestseller earns; quirks of the NYT list

  • ★★★ John says about 85% of traditionally published books sell fewer than 5,000 copies, and only about 0.4% sell more than 100,000. — 00:01:56
  • ★★ John says his widely reviewed, award-winning first novel Looking for Alaska never came close to the list until the success of The Fault in Our Stars years later. — 00:01:56 · Looking for Alaska (novel), The Fault in Our Stars
  • ★★★ John stresses that the vast majority of books from major publishers never become New York Times bestsellers. — 00:01:56 · The New York Times
  • ★★★ John says being a New York Times bestseller is a career milestone and an important designation, but not necessarily life-changing money. — 00:02:26 · The New York Times
  • ★★ John first reached the list with his third novel, Paper Towns, which spent three weeks on the young adult hardcover list, selling about 20,000 copies in that time. — 00:02:26 · Paper Towns
  • ★★★ John says the Paper Towns hardcover made around $105,000 in total, but the book took three years to write: about $35,000 a year, a modest living from writing. — 00:02:26 · Paper Towns
  • ★★ John says a bestseller can mean 10,000 copies a week for 200 weeks, making you quite wealthy, or 1,500 copies for one week, which does not. (hypothetical) — 00:02:55
  • ★★ John says the NYT list is famously quirky: books that should be on it sometimes aren't, because of weak independent-bookstore sales, age, or obscure reasons. — 00:02:55 · The New York Times

00:03:24 — Other lists: USA Today's all-books list and where Everything Is Tuberculosis ranks

00:03:53 — Indie bestseller list; read beyond bestsellers via booksellers and librarians; questions in comments; sign-off

  • ★★ John says Everything Is Tuberculosis is number two on the Independent Booksellers bestseller list, and thanks independent bookstores. — 00:03:53 · Everything Is Tuberculosis
  • ★★★ John says that if you only read New York Times bestsellers, you miss much of the breadth and quality of today's books. — 00:03:53 · The New York Times
  • ★★ John says his favorite way to find books is recommendations from booksellers, librarians and others who have read far more than he will. — 00:03:53
  • ★★ John found Paul Beatty's Tuff and Maureen Johnson's early books not as bestsellers but through recommendations from librarians and booksellers. — 00:04:22 · Maureen Johnson
  • ★★ John says some of his favorite books are among the 85% that sold fewer than 5,000 copies. — 00:04:22
  • ★★★ At the risk of undermining his own career, John encourages viewers to read both on and off the bestseller list. — 00:04:22
  • ★ John invites viewers with more questions about the bestseller list to leave them in comments, where he will try to answer. — 00:04:22

In the description and comments

  • ★★ In a comment John adds that Looking for Alaska did eventually make the list, in 2014, nine years after it was first published. — creator comment · Looking for Alaska (novel)
  • ★★ In a comment John clarifies that the roughly $105,000 from Paper Towns was his personal take, after production costs and publisher and bookstore cuts. — creator comment · Paper Towns
  • ★★ In a comment John says library copies don't count for the lists, but when his first novel sold under 5,000 copies, about 2,500 went to libraries; he urges support for libraries. — creator comment · Looking for Alaska (novel)
  • ★★ In a comment John says bulk buying (e.g. by megachurches) is a common way onto the list; the NYT sometimes marks such books with a little symbol few readers understand. — creator comment · The New York Times
  • ★★ Asked for non-bestseller recommendations, John recommends former YouTube employee Steve Grove's new book How I Found Myself in the Midwest: funny, charming and very midwestern. — creator comment

Threads in this video

Where the stories that moved here went next

Mentioned

Central: Everything Is Tuberculosis · The New York Times Best Seller list

Also: People: Maureen Johnson · Paul Beatty

Works: Looking for Alaska (novel) · Paper Towns · Sunrise on the Reaping · The Anthropocene Reviewed (book) · The Fault in Our Stars · The Hunger Games (book series) · Tuff

Organizations: The New York Times · USA Today · Walmart

Concepts: independent bookstore

Places: United States

Only in the description or credits: How I Found Myself in the Midwest · Steve Grove

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