Has AI already killed self-help nonfiction books?

Self-help nonfiction book sales have plummeted since the rise of AI language models like ChatGPT and Claude, with the category declining 26.3% year-over-year in early 2026. Author Tim Ferriss documents his own catalog's dramatic collapse—from a baseline in 2022 to a projected 80% decline in print sales by 2026—attributing the drop to consumers using AI tools to get quick answers rather than purchasing prescriptive nonfiction books that function as lookup tables or decision-making guides.