Not All Self-Help Is Created Equal
When self-help writing is valuable and when it’s best avoided
Self-help is a best-selling genre and it’s hardly a mystery why. We’re overstimulated and worried and our future doesn’t always look the brightest. There are more causes for concern than ever before, and with cell phones, they seem to permeate our lives from all corners.
Fortunately, there are more people offering advice on how to deal with our ills than ever before. It can be found in books and YouTubes, TikToks, and Reels. And while much of what’s on the market is useful, it’s important to be able to distinguish between what’s valuable and what’s recyclable.
To cultivate a higher standard of writing at my publication, I decided it was for the best to exclude what’s most easily referred to as “self-help” articles. My hope was to cut down on some of the submissions that most of our readers are unlikely to find much value in. It’s the “7 Ways to Be Happy” and “How to Beat Depression in 3 Simple Steps” listicles that I’m trying to avoid. It’s the “How to Be a Better Writer Overnight” articles that I neither care to read nor review.
But the more I’ve thought about it, the more I’ve realized just how many branches of writing fall within the self-help purview. Help can be found in many different places. It’s…
