the nonfiction genres AI will kill, 3 secrets, 2 links, 1 quote

Reader,

there’s this guy I’ve been learning from for years now. His name…Ed Rush​

if you clicked on his name above, you may have noticed that his book, The 21 Day Miracle, has almost 1,500 Amazon ratings

his most recent book, God Talks, is currently selling 20-30 copies a day

based on what I just told you, you might be surprised to hear that Ed failed kindergarten!

you might also be surprised to now hear that Ed ended up becoming one of the top fighter pilots in the world, graduating from Top Gun (think Tom Cruise).

what that means is that Ed is one of my favorite people to learn from because he doesn’t talk down to you when he teaches

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why am I telling you about Ed?

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he’s doing a zoom meeting next Tuesday to teach what he’s learned about publishing and marketing a book.

here are some of the topics he’ll cover:

• The step-by-step process to write a book fast (even if you have only 30 minutes a day).
• How to relaunch a book that didn’t become a bestseller
• How to end writer’s block for good and ensure you’re moving forward every time you write. (he used this to write a bestselling book in 21 days from idea to ‘published’.

This meeting is entirely free, but he does have a cap on how many people he wants there. Just respond to this email if you’d like the invite 🙂

I get no compensation for promoting this event. I’m a big fan of Ed and what he knows about publishing and marketing books

3 Secrets:

1. A LI strategy that just worked

Background:​
After a solid launch, Udi Ledergor of Courageous Marketing, began to observe the post-launch sales slump.

Without an email list, Udi turned to his 42K strong following on LinkedIn.

For those of you who have been promoting on LI: you know how hard it is to get people to engage with your content.

The Plan:​
Reduce the price of both ebook and print formats on Amazon and drive traffic from his LinkedIn.

Instead of just posting some basic text about the promotion, Udi got creative (not surprising for those who’ve read his book)

In just a couple of days, Udi threw together this video (which I can only assume was produced with some AI tool)

The Result:

For comparison, Udi’s posts regularly get 20-30 engagements. This one got 225+ people engaging with 70+ comments.

Orders doubled vs. the previous month and the momentum has continued for weeks.

My takeaways:

1. Combining creativity and AI video tools like Sora is still an underutilized strategy but that will only last as long as not everyone is doing it. A year from now, it probably won’t work as well once more people have figured out how to use these tools and include it in their usual workflow.
2. For those with a LI following, you should do at least one pricing promotion every year and combine that with creative AI-generated content posted to your LI. Something that makes people smile just like Udi’s video did. Humor goes a long way in capturing attention.
3. Amazon loves the added traffic being driven to his listing which has helped the book gain better favorability with the Amazon algorithms to keep the book selling after the initial push.

When it comes to marketing, Udi is worth paying attention to. This strategy is entirely true to what he preaches in Courageous Marketing and we love teachers who practice what they preach.

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2. The nonfiction genres ChatGPT is killing

We noticed something strange in 2025.

Certain nonfiction niches that have historically crushed it are seeing a sharp drop in sales.

This coincides with a rise in people turning to various AI platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini for a more tailored educational experience.

More and more readers who used to buy “how to” books on Amazon are turning to these platforms for a more tailored and up-to-date learning experience.

For example:

How to make a business plan
How to start a dropshipping store
How to Meditate for Beginners
How to Meal Prep

If the value is basically repackaged internet content, AI does it instantly and for free.

If success depends on summarizing public knowledge rather than a practitioner’s insight, AI will flood the zone.

Books that will continue to have a market:​
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Books with proprietary insights (data, frameworks, original research)
Books that require interviews, reporting, or access
Books built on trust + authority
Books that create community or cultural moments

AI kills commodity books.

AI amplifies premium, voice-driven, expertise-driven authors.

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3. Updates to the Amazon Bestseller Rankings (BSR)

Think a bunch of orders in one day will put you at the top of the Amazon charts? Think again.

It’s now the hardest it’s ever been to game the Amazon bestselling rank system.
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What is the Amazon BSR? How is this book selling relative to every other book today?
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Go to your book page, scroll down until you see something that looks like this:

Why does it matter? BSR affects:

“Customers Also Bought” placement
Email recommendations
Organic ranking
Search results
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The lower your BSR (meaning better rank), the more Amazon pushes your book for free.
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​What’s changed the most:​
1. Amazon doubled down this year: Rank spikes are suppressed even more than they used to be.
2. External traffic (TikTok, Meta etc.) give you an algorithmic boost.
3. Rank is used as a means of reward or punishment. The more organic your sales are, the more you get rewarded. The more you manipulate sales, the more you get punished.
4. A week-long launch of sustained sales will create better results than a 1-day spike in sales.
5. The lower (or better) the BSR, the more often Amazon updates your book rank throughout the day.
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Sources: Internal data, Robert Ryan in Author Unleashed Meta Group

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2 Links

1. One of the first major applications of an author “AI-ing” themself to readers. Whether or not you agree with the sentiment of the article, it’s worth the read to hear about what Deepak Chopra is doing with AI. Read the article here.
2. If the future of the internet is becoming harder to trust, then the people who understand how to stay credible in a synthetic world are the ones who will keep winning online. BTB166: The Art of SEO with Stephan Spencer: AIO Strategy, LLM Visibility, Digital PR and the Dead Internet Theory. Listen here.​​

1 Quote

“If you have more money than brains, you should focus on outbound marketing. If you have more brains than money, you should focus on inbound marketing.”
– Guy Kawasaki

with love and sincere appreciation,

Alex
​BeforeTheBestseller | ShelfLife​
alex@getshelflife.com
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