As a ghostwriter and editor specializing in self-help books, I spend all my time working with psychologists, creativity coaches, doctors, meditation teachers, and others who want to share their expertise with the general public.
These experts have mountains of knowledge and a treasure trove of anecdotes and personal stories to share from their years in the field. Yet when I ask them how they intend to organize all this fabulous material into a book, their answers sometimes make my hair stand on end.
The therapist with decades of experience treating eating disorders tells me she plans to intersperse data and research with snippets of poetry. The artist who learned to paint while serving a twenty-year prison sentence tells me that, in addition to chapters on the creative process, he wants to include chapters on bodybuilding, personal finance, and positive affirmations. The spiritual teacher with a massive following for her simple, neurodivergent-friendly meditation practices wants to fill her self-help book with interviews with famous yogis she’s studied with.
To me, this points to an important truth: when you’re writing a self-help book, having great material is just the beginning. You also need to know how to structure that material for maximum impact. It doesn’t matter how famous you are or how much you know about your subject matter; if you can’t commit to a coherent vision for your book, it won’t achieve its full potential.
One positive example I often point to is Joseph Goldstein’s classic meditation manual The Experience of Insight, which has helped thousands of people progress through the stages of insight meditation. Now, imagine if Goldstein had taken the exact same experience and knowledge, but used it to write a book called My Incredible Experiences with Meditation, featuring stories of his most amazing moments of transcendence.
Yes, maybe some die-hard Joseph Goldstein fans would still pick up this imaginary book, but the average reader looking for practical advice about meditation would skip it, and Goldstein’s wisdom and experience would not have the impact it does today.
Similarly, imagine if James Clear had decided to cram his bestselling self-help book Atomic Habits with dense academic theory and philosophical digressions. Let’s call this imaginary book A Treatise on the Ontology of Habit Formation. Sound like a fun read?
My point is that you can use the exact same raw materials to write an international bestseller or a book few people ever read. The key is to use your materials to write the right book, not just write a book.
Knowing when you’ve hit on the right structure for your self-help book requires a bit of a sixth sense. You can develop this sense by studying your favorite self-help books and asking yourself, Which book DIDN’T the author write? And why did they write THIS one instead?
Asking yourself these questions and paying careful attention to the answers will give you an invaluable education in the art of self-help writing. You’ll start to notice the way self-help authors carefully select for anecdotes that dovetail neatly with the problem they’re helping readers solve. You’ll notice how each chapter is curated to give readers a consistent, coherent experience, with each concept building on the one that precedes it. And you’ll realize just how much each author is choosing to leave out—all the stories, studies, and ideas that may be wonderful in and of themselves, but which just don’t fit in this particular book.
Once you start to understand how your favorite self-help authors created a strong container for their ideas, it gets way easier to do this for your own book. Ask yourself, What’s the one problem I want to solve for my readers? What’s the one skill I want them to master? How do I want them to feel—inspired, challenged, provoked, comforted? Then make sure that everything you include in your book speaks directly to these goals—from the title all the way through to the appendix.
And don’t worry, you can always save all your leftover material for your follow-up book.
Author Bio
Hilary T. Smith is an editor, book coach, and the co-author of The Self-Help Author’s Toolkit. Her online writing classes in self-help and memoir reach hundreds of students each year. Learn more at https://www.hilarytsmith.com/.
