Film Courage: How is a New York Times best-selling author different
from a Wall Street Journal or USA Today author?
Anna David, Publisher, Author, Speaker, Podcast Host, and Television Personality: The New York
Times bestseller list is the Holy Grail of lists and the New York Times just has a mystique and
an allure that no other publication on earth does. The Wall Street Journal in USA Today lists
are strictly by the numbers whereas the New York Times list, yes they're looking at sales numbers,
but they've been open about the fact that it is an editorial decision. A lot of people try to
game these lists and there were companies that were allegedly for two hundred thousand dollars
could get you on the New York Times bestseller list. There was a scandal a few years ago,
a book called Handbook for Mortals came out and it was a why a book and no one had ever heard of
it no one had ever heard of the author and it it hit on the New York Times list above of the hate
you give which was a why a book that everybody was obsessed with and people said what is this
book how come I've never heard of it. Twitter got involved and they uncovered this thing that the
way they had gotten onto the New York Times list is they had figured out which bookstores were New
York Times reporting bookstores so it's sort of like a Nielsen family. Some stores report
to the list and you have to have sales you can't go and buy 10,000 copies on Amazon it has to be
a little bit of sales everywhere ever since the Handbook From Mortal Scandal the New York Times
started putting a little dagger which basically says yeah they made the list but were not totally
sure it's like it's basically putting it putting it into question but they still will put it on the
list a lot of people don't even know what the dagger means Wall Street Journal in USA Today
strictly by the numbers if I self-publish my book is there any way I can become a New York Times
best-selling author with that book you absolutely can become a New York Times best-selling author
with a self-published book it doesn't happen very often but it absolutely can happen when someone
comes to you and says my goal is to become a New York Times best-selling author what is your answer
if somebody says my goal is to become a New York Times best-selling author
I often will tell them it's like walking in to buy a lotto ticket and saying my goal is
to be the jackpot winner that's awesome I think that's everybody's goal when they play the lotto
but it doesn't mean it's a very realistic goal I'm a big fan of those things you can control
therefore I would rather have a hundred people read one of my books and have those
hundred people incredibly affected by it have them want to hire me or my company than have a
hundred thousand people who aren't really going to care I think it is about the quality of the
reader and the impact the writer is going to have on them and not about the numbers
what are the biggest misconceptions people have about being a New York Times best-selling author
the biggest misconception people have about being in New York Times best-selling author
is they think you never have to work again you're a millionaire a multi-millionaire you're made for
the rest of your life the reality is being a New York Times best-selling author is amazing because
you get to say I'm a New York Times best-selling author ever trust me I dine out on it as often
as I possibly can but it doesn't really mean anything beyond the fact that you can say it I
know somebody who had a number one New York Times best-selling book not just on the list number one
on the list for week after week after week who is completely broke so it doesn't mean you're set
for life it just means you've you've accomplished something that many many people want to accomplish
and you should brag about it for the rest of your life can you tell us how you did it how did you
become a New York Times best-selling author well so my book that hit the list was not party girl
people always I'll tell you they think it is and sometimes I don't even correct them I'm like yeah
yeah it's a book that I wrote for an actor and so we co-wrote it but he actually never read the book
and it was what happened is this I met this actor he said I want to write a book I said
I know an agent who sells celebrity Memoirs and I called him up and I said could you sell this
book and he said absolutely and it can be in New York Times bestseller and so he he couldn't make
any promises but that's why I agreed to do it and so it the actor was able to get on Dr Phil and on
the talk and on these other shows and it hit the list and it doesn't matter matter if it hits the
list once it doesn't matter if it's the e-book or the paperback or the hardcover it doesn't matter
if it's there's something called the extended list if it hits the list it's officially on the
list so how I did it is basically I partnered with somebody that I didn't want to partner
with because I knew that would be the result or I hoped that would be the result and that it would
all be worth it a memoir has a much better chance I guess of of getting a publishing deal and of of
hitting this Mark or no I hear all sorts of things I I don't know if I'm I think they have separate
lists so I when I originally wrote party girl I sat there in the office with Regan books and
they said to me why didn't you write a memoir and it was the week that James fry was getting
like brought down on Oprah he had written this recovery book and it turns out he had made things
up and it was like it happened to be the week that I was meeting with harp with reading books about
party girl and I thought well you can't really be funny in a memoir you can't really make fun
of yourself you can but it's a lot harder to in retrospect I do wish I had done a memoir because
there's all these lists of like these are the best addiction Memoirs and all of these things
nobody ever says like here's a list of the most useful and best addiction novels that's
not really a thing when the book came out they called it what did Harper came up with
they called it reality fiction which is also now called Auto Fiction where it's kind of fiction
it's a Romano clay it's based on your real life but then there's a lot of fictional elements to it
can you be a successful author and never write a New York Times bestseller a thousand percent a
successful author to me is someone who publishes a book they're proud of that helps people and to
me it doesn't have to it doesn't mean a certain number of sales it means that it's done at the
highest level and it doesn't even have to mean a certain length there are successful books that
are a hundred Pages I don't think you should go any shorter than that but but there are horrible
books that are on the New York Times bestseller list like unreadable books so there is not it
there's it's it doesn't mean it's a success even if it's on a list to me do you remember the first
Memoir you read where you said I want to do this yeah I read a book called permanent midnight
by Jerry Stahl in the late 90s and I thought this is funny this is dark but this is funny
then I didn't really think I could do it then I read this book called going down by this
novelist named Jennifer Bell and it's a novel and it's so funny and I later became friends
with her and she blurbed one of my later books but I just I I don't know if I thought I was
just like I wish I could do this this is so funny and I'm a big fan of humorous writing
I'm not like I'm like I like Fitzgerald and not Hemingway Hemingway is so serious which sounds fun
(fun but dark) that's what I like but I will tell you the the way I actually wrote a book
is I was sitting in my old boss's office it was a magazine that he worked at and I
looked on the shelf and I saw a book written by a girl we all knew and I picked it up and I said
what's this and he said oh it's so-and-so's book and I'm like looked in a real pages and
a real cover and a real publisher and I thought if she can do it I know I can and that's when I
sat down and started writing how much money can you make as a New York Times best-selling author
I will tell you I've never been more broke than when I was a New York Times bestselling author
that book I had gotten in advance of I think it was 75,000 but it took years of my life between
a very unpleasant years between the writing the editing the the putting it out and the
way I look at it is there are businesses where one client could pay you seventy five thousand
dollars a hundred thousand dollars more than that so why worry about how much you can make from an
advance or book sales when you can show how well how to do something and have somebody hired to
do that if it's a traditionally published book that's a lot harder to do because a traditional
publisher they're interested in bringing people to their publishing company so so for they put
their website in the book if you're independently or self-published or hybrid publishing you get to
put your website you get to put a QR code that brings people to your newsletter list so I think
the the way to really make money is to write a book that helps people and helps someone hire you.