How Long is a Self-Help Book?
S.R. Beaston
Crafty with words, wit, and wisdom, just add caffeine to make it more interesting.
There are always going to be aspects of our life that we feel the need to improve on. Whether it be fitness, mental health, love, or anything in between, there’s bound to be some guidance for it.
Self-help information comes from many sources. There are free guides on YouTube, blog posts (hi there), and yes, books.
If you are a writer (and/or a person) experienced in any of life's challenges, you may just be sitting on a gold mine of information, ready to be explored and written. But how much of it is relevant? How much do you write? Here, we’ll tackle exactly what it takes to write a self-help book.
How long should a self-help book be?
The average self-help book ranges from 40,000 to 60,000 words. The information provided should be clear and concise, while also delivering a comprehensive understanding of the topic.
Self-help books should lean toward the short side, since learning something new can be intimidating enough—a long guide might scare off potential readers.
Some topics demand more information than others. Books on emotions may not be as intensive to work through as improving finances; it simply depends on the category.
Research and experience are the keys to conveying what you know, but skill and structure will help you write it in fewer words while still being understood.
How many chapters in a self-help book?
The average number of chapters in a self-help book is 12. Self-help chapters tend to follow a pattern similar to this:
- Introduction: The problem you're solving, the point of the book, and yourself.
- Overview of the problem, related to the reader.
- Pain building: illuminating the struggles of this problem, as well as the consequences of leaving it unresolved
- Actionable advice: The bulk of your book will be this section. Offer your ideas, solutions, and analysis. This is where your anecdotes and research come in.
- An achievable call-to-action: Tell your reader what they can do to change! The actionable advice section should already guide them in the right direction, but here is where you tell them plainly what the next steps are.
- Addressing possible issues: With any change, there will be roadblocks. Address the common problems people have when trying to make this change, solutions, and tools or community recommendations for continued support.
Those topics can be thoroughly covered within 12 chapters, and the way you break them up is up to you!
How many words in a self-help book?
The average self-help book is around 50,000 long. It's a good idea to aim for around there, as genres have expectations for many things, including length. Too long, and you might scare off a reader who's new to the subject.
Do you need a college degree to publish self-help books?
Though helpful, you do not need a college degree or any formal credentials to write a self-help book. A well-researched or experienced topic yields similar results despite your academic background.
Though it can be a challenge to market your book without relevant qualifications, it doesn’t mean you can’t be successful in your endeavor. It takes a writer to write, and all writers are also researchers, more or less. For more information on writing self-help books, check out $ How to Outline a Self-Help Book That’ll Sell in 2024$ .
Experience is one of the most important things you can have while venturing into writing a self-help book. Experience can’t be taught in a classroom—your particular life experiences can help readers who are going through similar struggles.
Research can be accessed almost anywhere at any time. Facts, data, and statistics can break down information into bite-sized answers to help you relay information quickly and efficiently.
These important aspects trump the need for a degree or specific expertise.
Can anyone publish a self-help book?
Technically, yes, anyone can publish a self-help, but that doesn’t mean anyone should.
If you are reading through this, then the interest is there, and that’s a great start, but there are a lot of important elements that go into writing a self-help book. Though you don’t need a college degree, here are some things you do need to make your self-help book worth the read.
1. Willpower
It takes a lot of effort to write a book in general, let alone a book about a daunting problem with the know-how to fix it at an appropriate length. It needs to be easy to read, but also easy to relate to, which means you have to tap into that part of you that also deals with this problem.
2. Interest
You have to be interested in what you are writing. The passion to share information in the hope of helping others should come through your writing, and you must have found some tools, coping skills, and information that aren’t so readily available to the public. Your interests in this problem can make the process much easier and produce a more effective book.
3. Perspective
Do you have information that isn’t easily accessible? Do you have a new or fresh perspective? You'd be hard-pressed to find a topic that hasn't already been covered, but there's always room for a new angle that might appeal to a different group of people.
4. Experience
Hand-in-hand with perspective, experience is one of the most important things to have while writing a self-help book. Your experience crafts your perspective, and your perspective further drives experience. This nuance and glimpse into your life can help narrow what tools and skills helped for this specific problem.
5. Flexibility
If a writer takes too strong of an opinion with absolutely no room for nuance, there's a good chance readers might feel belittled. Expressing your experience shouldn’t shun others. Allowing for alternate points of view, as well as addressing potential arguments, will give you a stronger book.
This list is not to say that you can’t write a self-help book if you do not have these things. You are free to start writing a self-help book with just a dream and some time on your hands, but the more care and research you put into it, the better it will be.
Do self-help books make money?
Yes, self-help books make money. In fact, they are the fastest growing nonfiction category. The rise of book sales increased by almost 15% in 2019, with 2020 being the best year in sales since 2010.
With the increased interest in physical and mental health, as well as a desire to have a better work/life balance, these self-help books are going to continue to catch the eye of readers and rise in profit.
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