| 100% | JIMI | 4 | 2010 New York Times best seller subtitled "Sounds Like a Rainbow" |
| 44% | ATUL | 4 | ___ Gawande, surgeon with the #1 New York Times best seller "Being Mortal" |
| 44% | SUSANNAKAYSEN | 13 | Author of the 1993 New York Times best seller "Girl, Interrupted": 2 wds. |
| 44% | GILLIANFLYNN | 12 | Author of the 2012 New York Times best seller "Gone Girl": 2 wds. |
| 44% | TAN | 3 | Amy who wrote the New York Times best seller The Backyard Bird Chronicles |
| 43% | OHFUN | 5 | “Neat, sounds like a good time!” |
| 42% | STIEGLARSSON | 12 | Author of the 2005 New York Times best seller "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo": 2 wds. |
| 41% | MARBLED | 7 | Like a well-aged New York strip |
| 40% | THELOSTWORLD | 12 | Michael Crichton novel that spent eight weeks at #1 on the New York Times Best Seller list in 1995 (3 wds.) |
| 39% | FUN | 3 | "Sounds like a good time!" |
| 39% | OHFUN | 5 | "Sounds like a good time" |
| 37% | JUDITHKRANTZ | 12 | Novelist whose "Princess Daisy" spent five weeks on the 1980 New York Times Fiction Best Seller list (2 wds.) |
| 37% | JAMESMICHENER | 13 | Novelist whose "The Covenant" spent nine weeks on the 1980 New York Times Fiction Best Seller list (2 wds.) |
| 37% | ROBERTLUDLUM | 12 | Novelist whose "The Bourne Identity" spent 16 weeks on the 1980 New York Times Fiction Best Seller list (2 wds.) |
| 36% | PURRED | 6 | Sounded like a new engine |
| 36% | JOHNGRISHAM | 11 | Writer whose novel "The Brethren" topped "The New York Times" Fiction Best Seller List for nine weeks in 2000 (2 wds.) |
| 36% | PURRS | 5 | Sounds like a well-tuned engine |
| 36% | HUM | 3 | Sound like a well-oiled machine |
| 35% | IJUSTMIGHT | 10 | "Hmm, sounds like a good idea" |
| 34% | IDEA | 4 | "Say, that sounds like a pretty good ___" |
| 34% | OUR | 3 | Pronoun that sounds like a unit of time |
| 34% | YOURE | 5 | It can sound like a long time ago |
| 34% | APPEALTOAUTHORITY | 17 | Besides, The New York Times said it was good! |
| 34% | ERA | 3 | Laundry detergent brand that sounds like a time period |
| 33% | BICOASTAL | 9 | Like a New York/Los Angeles romance |
| 33% | BYEBYE | 6 | Farewell that sounds like a prefix meaning "two," two times |
| 33% | JUUL | 4 | E-cig company whose name sounds like a well-known singer |
| 33% | SEVENHOUR | 9 | Like a typical flight from New York to London |
| 33% | DAILY | 5 | Like the New York Times mini puzzle |
| 33% | KAKU | 4 | Michio ___, theoretical physicist and New York Times best-selling author who has hosted several TV specials |