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5 Reality Stars Who Made The 'NYT' Best Sellers List... But With A Catch

BySamantha BushMay 6, 2022

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Recently, Stassi Schroeder has come out of hiding to promote her new book Off With My Head: The Definitive Basic B*tch Handbook to Surviving Rock Bottom, which she wrote after getting fired from Vanderpump Rules for calling the "tipline" on her former cast mate Faith Stowers, falsely accusing her of theft. On Wednesday she posted a video of herself getting a call that she made The New York Times best sellers list. But, there is some major side eye going on in the book world about it 👀 And it involves this little symbol, (†), the dagger.

In 1995, the NYT decided to start using this little dagger symbol next to some books on their best seller lists to indicate uncertainty around the origin of the books' sales. If their team can't verify that the sales were organic, and suspect that "group or bulk purchases" (among other potential factors) helped boost the amount of books sold, they indicate such uncertainty with the dagger.

What's a "bulk purchase"? It could mean that an author or institution purchased, in bulk, a significant amount of the total number or books sold. It's not to say that every book with a dagger next to it didn't sell a lot of copies without intervention, it just means the NYT can't necessarily verify that it did.

I posted about this on Instagram after @wannemachaa tagged me in a Story that explained this little dagger next to Off With My Head, and the meaning of it. Stassi's first book, Next Level Basic, also has this symbol.

It got me wondering, who else in the reality TV world carries this little dagger next to their titles??

Bachelorette Hannah Brown

You got that right, one of the most popular Bachelorette's, Hannah Brown, might have bought her way onto the NYT best sellers list, but surprisingly, Colton Underwood made this list without that little dagger following him. 👀

Kristin Cavallari

This doesn't surprise me one bit. Kristin's book True Roots: A Mindful Kitchen with More Than 100 Recipes Free of Gluten, Dairy, and Refined Sugar, is one of the books with a dagger next to it on its #3 spot.

I mean, the title itself is insane, there is not a chance in hell that many people or her fans bought this book, right??

Jessie James Decker (Not Once, But Twice)

I classify her under my "Nash-Villians" so this doesn't shock me. She seems to do a lot of things to try to up her status, and the dagger next to her books on the list is just another potential piece of evidence that she isn't all that she seems. Sure, her fans look to her Instagram for fun family content, but I don't know how many people are really looking to Jessie James Decker to give them actual life advice or recipes.

Jana Kramer

If you follow any entertainment Instagram account, you know who Jana Kramer is. She is famous for putting her marriage and all the trials and tribulations that came with it out for the world to see. So, what better way to showcase how you got through it all by making the NYT best seller list, and then getting divorced 6 months later! Dagger.

And 6 Reality Stars Whose Books DIDN'T Have the Dagger

To be fair, some of our favorite reality stars do not have a dagger next to their titles, which means the NYT could verify that the sales of their books were 100% above board. Here are a few of the true heavy hitters: