In Judgment Of Self-Help Books

 

 

I recently had the honor – and burden – of being a book awards judge. It was for a solid group – Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA). I chose a genre and was flooded with about 45 books to read over the course of three months – about one every two days.

 

It was not easy to be a judge. I am not sure that I would do it again.

 

First, the time commitment was nuts. I was not getting paid to do what amounted to at least a full-time, one-month job. In addition to reading the cumulative effect of some 10,000 book pages, judges were asked to fill out evaluation forms for each entrant. The paperwork didn’t just ask us to rank the top 10 books in order but to also give feedback on every single book and to rate each one based on certain sets of criteria.

 

But it was a feeling of accomplishment to go through so many books and serve as a juror for the book world. It was harder than serving on jury duty – which I have done twice. What I and the other judges did for this and at all book awards is to help set a standard for readers.

 

Still, I couldn’t stop seeing the many hazards to this process. For one, who is to say all of the judges did what they were supposed to do? What if the standards that they used – as well as their tastes – differed from mine? I know that book awards, book reviews, publisher acquisition choices, and writing contests are terribly subjective. I still hope that our reading community could develop some type of reasonable barometer for judging a book.

 

A lot of how I reacted to a book had to do with several factors:

 

·         My familiarity with the subject matter.

·         My personal experience with it.

·         My reading history.

·         My standards and opinions.

·         My mood.

·         My knowledge.

 

I was a judge in the self-help category, a subject that I have consumed for more than four decades of reading books as an adult. I could not help but think none of what I read in any way compares to the classics, like The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Think & Grow Rich, As A Man Thinketh, The Road Less Traveled, How to Make Friends & Influence People, Awaken The Giant Within, The Power of Now, Atomic Habits, and The Power of Positive Thinking. But then again, that was not the standard here. The standard was simply to compare these books to each other – a much smaller universe to cover.

 

The next challenge was how to reconcile the various subjects that fell under self-help, for it really is a broad category that overlaps into how-to and inspiration. A book on how to overcome addiction is lumped with ones on how to make more money, have a better relationship, deal with a rare disease, rebound from a setback, manage one’s time better, seek happiness, and on and on.

 

You can look at the pieces of a book – the cover, the title, the editing, the layout, the writing style, and the length, and give scores for each thing. But a book is a complete product and is more than each of its parts. It is the bottom-line feel and the lasting message that a book was more worthy of one’s time than another that separates one book from the other. That’s so subjective.

 

We can probably agree on books that are pretty bad and really good — with the rest left in a vast middle. Of the really bad or really good, it can be difficult to rank one just a little better or worse than the other in any meaningful, definitive, objective way.

 

One of the challenges to writing a self-help book is to recognize that regardless of the quantity and quality of such books circulating for decades, society is quite screwed up. Despite all of the advice, analysis, and encouragement, suicide is at an all-time high rate, obesity is at a record number (unless corrected by drugs or surgery), addictions are high, so many have lousy relationships, and plenty struggle to come to terms with loss, pain, and childhood trauma. So, can a self-help book cure us of our many ills? Some books work for some people. I guess we need to match people up with the book that speaks to them.

 

Self-help books need to strive to:

 

·         Say something in a new way.

·         Raise an issue or cure not yet discussed.

·         Be better, first, or unique in the messaging.

·         Either address one’s personal or professional life – but not necessarily both.

 

Most self-help books are written based on:

 

·         Research and studies/polls/studies or

·         One’s personal experience or

·         One’s professional experience/position

 

Today’s self-help books must not repeat what genre-leaders said years ago –they need to contradict them or show how to apply this timeless wisdom to modern-day lives. Readers want relevance, customization, and immediate results.

 

We live in an era of multiple generations of readers who are flooded with self-help, how-to, and inspirational books. After a while it is hard to find something new or special. Few books demonstrate proof they can work for the masses. Readers really have no way of even knowing if the writer truly lives by what he or she tells others to do. 

We will always have self-help books and there will always be awards to judge them. Like the books and readers themselves, the awards are imperfect. But it is the best that we have to offer for now.

 

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About Brian Feinblum

This award-winning blog has generated over 4.4 million pageviews. With 5,300+ posts over the past 14 years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs  by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.”  Copyright 2025.

 

For the past three decades, Brian Feinblum has helped thousands of authors. He formed his own book publicity firm in 2020. Prior to that, for 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and as the director of publicity at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C. Maxwell, Jeff Foxworthy, Seth Godin, and Henry Winkler.

 

His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent (https://pubspot.ibpa-online.org/article/whats-needed-to-promote-a-book-successfully).

 

He hosted a panel on book publicity for Book Expo America several years ago, and has spoken at ASJA, BookCAMP, Independent Book Publishers Association Sarah Lawrence College, Nonfiction Writers Association, Cape Cod Writers Association, Willamette (Portland) Writers Association, APEX, Morgan James Publishing, and Connecticut Authors and Publishers Association. He served as a judge for the 2024 IBPA Book Awards.

 

His letters-to-the-editor have been published in The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Post, NY Daily News, Newsday, The Journal News (Westchester) and The Washington Post. His first published book was The Florida Homeowner, Condo, & Co-Op Association Handbook.  It was featured in The Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

 

Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog.

 

You can connect with him at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum/ or https://www.facebook.com/brian.feinblum