Comments on: Helping ourselves

By: Nan Goheen

Nan Goheen — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 21:08:43 +0000

The long and short of it: As a generation we are self-helped out. On self help over load and have learned that reading about change isn’t the same thing as changing.

PS I realize you didn’t ask where the market is but…..Most Boomers are too late to use the new brain research as parents but may be interested grandparents.

There is a need for practical grandparenting books that address both the old as the hills challenges like in-laws, over stepping boundaries and how to respectfully contribute to the developing extended family.

By: Nan Goheen

Nan Goheen — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 20:12:33 +0000

There is no single answer to most questions and trends are multi-determined so examing the current baby boomer life stage and how well the inter net addresses those needs may shed light on where the next wave of personal information books is likely.

We baby boomers are ripe for a new movement since so many of our delusions have been shattered. But this time we don’t want to look like the fool or be caught reading The Secret while the economy crumbles around us.

So many of the self help books were arrogant and professed to know the answer without needing to consider or even understand scientific inquiry or the complex economic realities of our times.

Meanwhile brain research is exploding and its relevance to parenting and relationships stunning. There is so much more known about what really does work and as writers (like myself) with science backgrounds make this information available I predict a new explosion because these methods really do work.

PS If this is a 2nd post I apologize. I may know something about brain research but posting has me stumped.

By: Nan Goheen

Nan Goheen — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 20:10:56 +0000

So many of the self help books were arrogant and professed to know the answer without needing to consider or even understand scientific inquiry or the complex economic realities of our times.

By: emily

emily — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 20:40:18 +0000

Who was the audience for Self-help in the late 80s-early 90s? What if the audience was aged between 20 to 35 — meaning they were born between 1946 to 1970 — or from the Boomer Generation.

What life experiences would lead that audience to seek help from books?

They:
1. READ BOOKS !! [from childhood to college, that age group depended on books]
2. had CASH for books — [PRICE/COST — while the systemic economic pattern that led to our current depression was already in place, it was not obvious. So people were feeling stressed but had the OPTIMISTIC ATTITUDE that they could do something to help themselves]
3. had TIME to read books — [LIFE STYLE — the 40 hour work week prevailed]
4. indoor malls, with stand alone book stores, proliferated in the 1980s — [PLACE/CONVENIENCE]
5. discounted bestsellers became a marketing device to increase store traffic and pushed the growth of chain book stores [PROMOTION/PR/COMMUNICATION]
6. but why did all these elements of the ‘marketing-mix’ work so well to sell a PRODUCT called self-help books?

7. How about this: the sheer numbers within the boomer generation included a large population of women breaking new ground as they took on non-traditional roles. AND there were few mothers who presented ‘everyday’ role models and the grandmothers handed down ‘teacher and nurse’ professional roles. The need for guidance was great. [PRODUCT/CONSUMER NEED]

Today’s market includes the seniors of the boomer generation — their problems have been solved in large part [see the TV ads aimed at senior men with ED which identifies them as being at the age of ‘doing and solving.’

I wonder if there is a concomitant rise in sales of health books? Taking care of knees, hips, heart — etc. As a member of this aging population, I see many senior men and women at the Physical Therapist clinic who are dealing with joint-replacements after surgery, or [like me] fixing torn cartilage and learning the limits of the aging body to continue an active lifestyle.

By: Joelle

Joelle — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 19:23:19 +0000

I do agree that it’s probably the web that’s cut down on the success of self-help. But also, maybe it’s a generational thing. I recently bought The Happiness Project after checking it out at the library after someone recommended it to me, but it’s the only one I’ve bought in years. In fact, the three that really helped me during the big boon was THE ARTIST’S WAY, DON’T SWEAT THE SMALL STUFF, and SIMPLE ABUNDANCE and I still have them and use them, so I don’t really need much else! They still teach me new things.

By: Gill Avila

Gill Avila — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 10:59:05 +0000

I just came to an accommodation with my afflictions with the help of two psychiatrists and 16 prescriptions for anti-anxiety pills and antidepressants.

By: ryan field

ryan field — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 05:18:20 +0000

A lot of people are in counseling or therapy now. They discuss it openly, where this was a discreet topic in the 80’s. People sought self-help because it was discreet. Times were different, too. TV talk shows like Oprah revolved around self-help, which helped promote the books. Now it’s reality TV and political shows. Or home improvement with good looking guys.

By: Miriam

Miriam — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 16:50:42 +0000

All very thought provoking. Jim, here at DGLM, also suggested that the poor economy might have had an impact–when people are busy trying to put food on the table, they’re not that concerned with achieving spiritual enlightenment or happiness.

Longtime publishing insider and HuffPost contributor Gary Krebs, who was visiting the office today suggested that the classic self-help titles hold up so well (and still sell so well) that they are eating into the market for new self-help.

By: Jacoba Urist

Jacoba Urist — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:29:43 +0000

Hi Miriam:

I think the self-help category kind of “grew up” or morphed into more engrossing memoir/narrative type reads. A hybrid self-help if you will…best ex. The Happiness Project. (or look at the 100 thing challenge, which is a book about simplifying but not a “how to” type advice structure per se).

By: Lori Ettlinger Gross

Lori Ettlinger Gross — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:01:56 +0000

Blogs. There is more self-help on the web now than ever before. You can find it anywhere, and it isn’t necessarily in the traditional format. There’s the how-to websites and then there are people spilling their innards, for better or worse, and this kind of purging is commonly viewed as a healthy form of expression.

In many ways the self-help genre has gone the way of style advice books: the internet. Many moons ago I had submitted a non-fiction proposal for a style book to a friend who works in publishing. I wanted her honest opinion of how it might fair with editors. Her reply was succinct: it won’t fly. Why? Because you can find this kind of advice on the web now, and plenty of it. We can now help ourselves to advice in so many disciplines that books in the genres have become redundant. We probably need to move on to more specialized areas, the mini-genre, if you will. Spinning these topics to suit a specific audience perhaps, or multi-tasking them across a specific demographic, like having your cake, your health, your style, your beauty, and eating it all in a single teaspoonful too.