Author Guidelines

We look for psychology and health self-help books that teach readers how to master essential life skills. Mental health professionals who want simple, clear explanations of important psychological techniques and health issues also read our books. Thus, our books must be simple and easy to understand but also complete and authoritative. Most of our authors are therapists or other helping professionals.

Theoretical Orientations

Many of our books have a cognitive behavioral slant. We believe that painful emotions and undesirable behaviors are often caused by distorted thoughts or inaccurate interpretations of events. To relieve a painful emotion or alter an undesirable behavior pattern, it is first necessary to uncover and change the underlying inaccurate self-statements. Cognitive therapy translates particularly well into the self-help format because it typically uses a lot of step-by-step exercises and homework. Increasingly, we publish books based on acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), and mindfulness techniques. These “Third Wave” treatments offer many new, research-proven techniques that are making a major impact on psychology.

The following is a list of the types of books we publish.

Types of Books

Self-Help Psychology and Health Books

Our definition of a self-help psychology or health book is one that teaches essential life skills. It isn’t about something—it teaches something. It may give information, spur insight, motivate, or inspire, but these are secondary goals. The primary goal is to train the reader so that, after reading the book, he or she can relax at will, do self-hypnosis, survive a divorce, cope with grief, raise self-esteem, or more effectively deal with some health problem. Check out Stop Walking on Eggshells, Self-Esteem, and Messages, The Interstitial Cystitis Survival Guide, and Energy Tapping for examples of self-help psychology and health books.

10 Simple Solutions Series

The 10 Simple Solutions series is a closely focused series of short books that provide easy-to-grasp solutions to readily identified problems. Each book in the series follows a ten-chapter format—each chapter presenting a key solution to a specific problem associated with the topic. The books are nonlinear in the sense that a reader could open the book to any chapter and garner benefits. See Coping with Anxiety and 10 Simple Solutions to Panic for examples in the 10 simple solutions series of books.

Companion Series

The companion series offers concise and manageable solutions for the busy reader who wants fast results. The books in the series are intended to be positive, inspirational, and grounded in practical advice. Organized into fifty two-page chapters, each with a brief introduction and a short, engaging story that serves as an example for the exercises presented, the companion books are designed in a friendly, non-intimidating format. The intent is for readers to open the book to any page and still be able to understand what the book is about. The books offer concrete, easy-to-do exercises encouraging readers to take immediate action in their lives. The topics in the series include health, general, and women’s issues. Two bestselling companion series books are The Self-Esteem Companion and How to Stop Backing Down and Start Talking Back.

Medical Health and Psychology Workbooks

Workbooks are the purest form of self-help book. Printed in an 8.5 x 11 inch format, they teach skills by having the reader practice the skills in the book itself. They offer detailed and practical assessments, exercises, and checklists that help the reader cope with a specific problem. We publish both medical health and psychology workbooks.

Take a look at Fibromyalgia and Chronic Myofascial Pain, and The Chemotherapy and Radiation Survival Guide, for examples of medical health.

Check out The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook, Thoughts and Feelings and The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook for examples of psychology workbooks.

Professional Books

New Harbinger professional books are targeted to mental health practitioners such as therapists, counselors, psychologists, and psychiatrists and are meant to provide step-by-step help for practitioners wishing to add to their knowledge base. Two great examples of successful professional books are Handbook of Clinical Psychopharmacology for Therapists and Dialectical Behavior Therapy in Private Practice.

Memoirs

Memoirs should be first-person accounts of coping with psychological disorders. They should include compelling and honest descriptions of how the disorder has affected the author’s life and how he or she was able to overcome or cope with the problem in a more healthy way. Memoirs need to help others in the same situation, provide hope, and teach the reader something new about human strength and resilience. They should also simply provide a good read. A great example of one of our memoirs that fits this criteria is Bloodletting: A Memoir of Secrets, Self-Harm, and Survival.

Gift Books

Gift books are small-format books with a cute, edgy, or hip style. They offer inspiration as well as practical tips and suggestions for the reader on topics such as relaxation, self nurturing, relationships, and coping with stress. These books are entertaining and positive, but the help they offer is based on the most current research on effective psychological techniques. The best examples of New Harbinger gift books are Five Good Minutes and The Daily Relaxer.

Think Books

"Think Books" are literary non-fiction books that do not fit the formula for traditional step-by-step self-help. Instead, they focus on a groundbreaking concept or idea and are designed to offer the reader new insight into an issue as well as to offer inspiration for change. These titles provide both lay and professional readers with a new way of looking at an important and timely topic.