Eric Siu says write a book people want to recommend, then sell 10,000 copies to people who know you. After that, it sells itself. He skips chasing the New York Times bestseller list because it's gamed now and offers no real advantage, unlike the 1980s when Barnes & Noble discounted NYT bestsellers by 40%.
What does matter are 2 things. One, write a book that after people read it, they want to tell the others. And 2, sell the first 10,000 copies just to people you know or people who trust you. After that, as Shawn Coyne has said, it's the book's job to sell the rest. The generic advice for someone who's making a book. Number one, your job is not to get on the New York Times bestseller list. We know why that is important as a system signifier, and I think it will help explain things here. So in the 1980s, Barnes Noble was dominating the book business, and they decided that any New York Times bestselling book would be 40% off, which is basically was their cost. So if you got on the list, next week you would sell even more. So that became an easy status measure that book publishers decided would focus everyone's attention. That was 40 years ago. Now it's easily gamed. It means absolutely nothing. It doesn't get you any special treatment anywhere. It's just an ego thing. So I fired the New York Times years ago. I don't do things to get on the New York Times bestseller list 'cause it doesn't matter.
