SELF-HELP HELP
Want to write non-fiction that changes lives? Leading publishing editor Kelly Notaras offers her ten top tips for writing a self-help book
‘Self-help.’ If the term triggers a snicker or an eye roll from you, you’re definitely not alone. For many, the new age promise that a little personal growth work can bring a jackpot of love, prosperity and life satisfaction sounds like so much snake oil. But if statistics are true – which say that Americans alone spend upwards of $11 billion a year on selfimprovement – then there has to be something to it – right?
I’m here to say, yes. And I can say that with such authority because I have not always been a believer. I myself discovered self-help in my late twenties, when I was living in New York City and working as a book editor at a major publishing company. I was publishing on literary fiction, pop culture and memoir at the time, and if you’d suggested I would one day be a self-help editor I would have called you crazy. But behind closed doors, I was very unhappy. When I started sobbing at my desk one day – and couldn’t stop – I made an appointment with my doctor.
She took one look at me and prescribed anti-depressants. A few months after getting on the meds, a friend encouraged me to pick up one of the great personal growth titles of our age: The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle.
Here’s where my story about self-help changed. Because without hesitation I can say that that book transformed my life.
First and most importantly, it introduced me to meditation. (And within a year of daily sitting practice, I was off the anti-depressants.) But reading the book also opened the door into editing self-help as a career. Through my meditation community I was offered a job as the editorial director at a multimedia spirituality publisher. Suddenly the books I was reading for my job were the books I was already reading in my free time: self-help, personal growth and inspirational memoir.
Lisez l'article complet et bien d'autres dans ce numéro de
Writing Magazine
Options d'achat ci-dessous
Si le problème vous appartient,
Connexion
pour lire l'article complet maintenant.
Numéro unique numérique
January 2019
Ce numéro et d'autres anciens numéros ne sont pas inclus dans une nouvelle version de l'article
abonnement. Les abonnements comprennent le dernier numéro régulier et les nouveaux numéros publiés pendant votre abonnement.
Writing Magazine
Abonnement numérique annuel
OFFRE SPECIALE : était
€94,99
Maintenant
€47,99
facturé annuellement
Abonnement numérique de 6 mois
€47,99
facturé deux fois par an