Kind of strikes me as fighting over crumbs at this point. It is extremely rare to make money writing books, let alone a living. That’s just a basic consequence of people not reading books as much anymore. (People read more than before, but usually shorter-form content.) And the distribution of books people do read tends to be highly concentrated.
For what it’s worth, I don’t think I’ve ever looked at NYT bestseller or any other listicle to find a book. I don’t tend to like the books that “book” people like. Usually I buy a book because someone has specifically recommended it to me, or it is mentioned around a topic I’m interested in.
To my knowledge, anything with an ISBN counts towards book sales. It's funny though how many things have an ISBN that you wouldn't call a book. Playing cards, empty notebooks, adult coloring books, etc all count towards book sales. That fad of adult coloring books from about 9 years ago boosted book sales quite a bit.
> Adult coloring books were the main driving force behind the rise of adult nonfiction 12% sales growth during the first half of 2016 compared to the first half of 2015.
The chart of book sales, covering just seven years, shows four increases and two declines, with revenue ending up below 2021 in the most recent period.
So they have not been “rising year over year.”
(The figures for 2027 are obviously projections and don’t count.)
For what it’s worth, I don’t think I’ve ever looked at NYT bestseller or any other listicle to find a book. I don’t tend to like the books that “book” people like. Usually I buy a book because someone has specifically recommended it to me, or it is mentioned around a topic I’m interested in.