How To Write A Self-Help Book To Inspire Readers

If you want to learn how to write a self-help book, you likely have a specific area of expertise you want to share. You may be an absolute expert on cooking for a big family on a budget. Or, maybe you suffered a tragic loss and came out on the other side of grief.

Do you have the perfect method for training a new puppy while helping your older dog acclimate to the new addition? Do your friends turn to you for help in a certain area before googling it themselves? Do you want to share that wisdom for a neat paycheck? Learning how to write a self-help book may be for you!

How to write a self-help book: what you learn

• What is a self-help book?
• Can anyone write a self-help book?
• How do I start writing a self-help book?
• What is the format of a self-help book?
• How are self-help books written?

What is a self-help book?

A self-help book is a reference book for people struggling with a particular issue. There are many different themes in life people struggle with.

You could learn how to write a self-help book for organizing your house, finding peace with a death in the family, finding your own confidence, starting a business from your home, potty training your kid, learning how to write a children’s book series, etc.

Self-help books are wildly successful because they essentially have a built-in audience. If you write a self-help book for parents who are struggling to breastfeed, your audience is any parent struggling to breastfeed and any overbearing in-law who THINKS a parent is struggling to breastfeed. An inherent audience is extremely helpful.

Can anyone write a self-help book?

While technically, anyone can learn how to write a self-help book, you likely only want to do so if you’re an expert at something that you’ve already struggled with.

If you had to go through something, learn from it, and move forward with your life after overcoming that obstacle, you might feel inclined to help others who are struggling with the same issue. That’s where learning how to write a self-help book comes in.

If you want to use your knowledge and experience to help others, and you’ve got the time and the will to put it together, a self-help book could be your gift to the world. So where do we start?

How do I start writing a self-help book?

Learning how to write a self-help book is similar to learning how to write a book about your life. There are certain aspects necessary to incorporate to start writing a self-help book well.

Be an authority on the topic

Like I said, the impulse to learning how to write a self-help book usually comes from having overcome whatever obstacle the book centers on. Even if you’ve gone through it, did you go through in a way that was successful or enlightening?

Even if you’ve personally experienced an issue, you should be fairly researched on it before writing a self-help book. It’s crucial that you write from a place of authority. Interview other people who have gone through similar things, read existing books on the topic, research studies and data to become an expert on that topic.

Read lots of self-help books

Apart from being an expert on your subject matter, it’s also helpful to understand the format of a self-help book. Will yours be interactive? Do you give the reader homework? Or is it more a reflection on your own journey, what worked and didn’t, and what you would have done differently?

You’ll want to do a few things here:

• See what other authors have done that you liked, and make note of what you would do differently.
• Consider how your book will contribute something new. What insight or information will you bring to the market with your content?
• Read lots of self help books in your topic or niché, but also try branching out.
• See how authors of other topics handle information.

Maybe you’re writing a book on the emotional attachment to food, but you found the way a research writer formatted data to be helpful, so you emulate a few of their presentation tactics.

Make it reader-centric (not about you!)

Part of effectively learning how to write a self-help book means understanding you’re writing about yourself but for the benefit of someone else.

If you’re exclusively writing a story about your own struggles, that might not be a self-help book…it might be a memoir. If you’re taking your personal experiences and using them as examples for readers to understand the subject matter more clearly, that’s likely a self-help book.

Write about your experiences in the way that it relates to the reader and to the universal issue. This is a vital part of learning how to write a self-help book that sticks with readers.

Know your target audience

You can take the same topic or content and write for different people. The books How To Handle Bullying In High School and How To React When Your Kid Is Being Bullied are about the same thing, but they’re written for different perspectives.

You’d write different advice to the child than you would to that child’s parent. Knowing your audience will help you in drafting your book. Knowing your audience will also help when it comes time to market your book.

Assume your reader is starting from a place of no subject knowledge

If someone picks up a particular book, it’s likely they already know a little on the topic, or they’re at least interested in it. But assuming your reader has a knowledge base while writing a self-help book can be a BIG misstep.

There will certainly be readers starting with no knowledge, and at the very least, everyone could use a refresher on the basics.

Learn how to write a self-help book by having a completely ignorant person in mind. Catch them up from 0 knowledge to the place your book fits in.

For example, if you’re writing a psychology self-help book about how to manage the grief of a lost pet, you wouldn’t jump right to the pet loss, you’d likely start with basic grief psychology.

You’d catch the reader up on how brain chemicals shift, symptoms that could flag an issue, and common intuitive coping skills. Assume your reader is starting with no knowledge so your book can provide the full spectrum of context needed to digest the information.

What is the format of a self-help book?

Learning how to write a self-help book includes the writing process, but it also includes the format of the book itself. While novel-writing provides the opportunity for “pantsers” to thrive, self-help books typically require more organization. Readers don’t often buy self-help books for leisure.

They’re here to learn, and they’re ready to get to the point. If you don’t outline, the result is often a meandering book, and you will lose readers.

Outlining before you draft is imperative, but there are several different ways to approach a self-help book outline. When it comes down to organization, below is the standard self-help format.

Intro chapter

Like I said, when learning how to write a self-help book, assume your reader is starting with no knowledge of your information and topic. Ask yourself, what does a complete novice need to know?

Introduce the concept and stoke the pain. Show them that they have a problem, and assure them that you have the solution. Also assure them that you are an expert on the topic, and explain why you wrote the book.

Lay out the process

This might be accomplished through good chapter titles and a table of contents, but give your reader the lowdown on what you’re covering. A brief chapter about the process might be helpful. Learning how to write a self-help book that truly inspires readers means equipping them for the journey.

Pain building

Typically, the first substantial chapter of a self-help book is about the problem. The writer gets into detail about the issue, the extra problems that stem from that issue, and the possible bleak future if the issue isn’t addressed.

If the book is on how to keep a tidy house, why is that important? What happens if they don’t have a clean house? What do they stand to lose? How does it impact other parts of their life? Spend the first bit of the book really shining a light on the problem and its subsequent symptoms.

Introduce the solution

Learning how to write a self-help book of course means including a solution! How will you teach them to keep a tidy house? What is your foolproof strategy?

It’s often helpful to include examples of people who have been helped by your process, even if that person is only you. Specific examples of the pain, the solution, and the happy ending can increase the believability and effectiveness of your book.

To the process

The rest of the book is for walking the reader through your process. Each chapter should be dedicated to explaining a step of the solution, in great detail, with examples.

Tie it up

Want to know how to write a self-help book that truly inspires action? End the book on a positive, encouraging note. You’ve equipped your reader! They’re about to change their life! Throw in some success stories, give your final pieces of advice, and wish them the best of luck.

Tip: If you’re writing your book as a puzzle in a larger plan (like if you are also offering a course), don’t forget to use the end of your book to funnel clients to the next place you want them to be.

How are self-help books written?

While how to write a self-help book varies for every writer, just as there is a basic plot structure in novels, there is a basic format for learning how to write it. The how applies to what you write, but also the peripheral factors, such as your title and if you give the reader homework.

Come up with a catchy title

Titles sell books. You want a reader skimming spines to see your title and know exactly what it’s for. Get specific, but also keep it catchy! This is often accomplished with a clever title, then a transparent and thorough subtitle.

Here are some good titles I’ve seen in the self-help genre:

• The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck: A Counterintuitive Approach to Living a Good Life
• Why Do I Do That?: Psychological Defense Mechanisms and the Hidden Ways They Shape Our Lives
• You Are a Badass: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life
• Why Has Nobody Told Me This Before?

Your title and cover will make most of your book sales for you, so definitely invest the time and money to come up with some killer front matter.

Consider adding homework

When learning how to write a self-help book, give the reader actionable plans. This can be more conducive to lessons sticking, plus it will put your content in a hands-on context, making it easier to comprehend.

Telling a reader why they should do something is great, but showing them by giving them assignments to perform on their own can help them see the difference your advice will make on their lives.

Try a mind map

Mind maps are a tool to help you visualize and brainstorm different topics. For example, if I’m writing a book called How To Be An Indie Author (awful title, don’t do that), I might come up with the topic of “how to market your book.”

From there, I’d branch into several topics. For example, let’s say one is “social media.” From “social media,” I could branch to Instagram, Facebook, and newsletters.

So we have our book (How To Be An Indie Author), our section (How To Market Your Book), our chapter (Social Media), and our headings (the different forms of social media).

Each of those topics can branch into SEVERAL others, so mind mapping is an effective way to connect and develop many ideas. 

Think of questions your reader might ask

This is a great exercise for instructional or self-help books. Put yourself in your reader’s shoes (or in your own shoes before you overcame this obstacle), and ask the questions that person might ask.

If your book is on potty training a toddler, what questions would a first-time parent ask? How to transition from sitting in a trainer potty to a toilet? How do you teach a child to wipe? What do you do if your kid keeps playing with the toilet water?

Even coming up with ten to twenty questions will help you as you learn how to write a self-help book.

Talk to other people

Find support groups or individuals who are suffering from the problem you’re trying to solve. Interview them about what they’re stuck on, what they’ve already tried, what has worked, and what hasn’t. Get as many perspectives on the issue as you can, and take careful notes.

How to write a self-help book: get started today

Learning how to write a self-help book means doing your research and ensuring you’re an authority on your topic. It also means creating a strong outline, and getting your first draft out!

Self-help books are one of the highest selling genres, and they’re fairly simple to write. Ready to get started? Use our free training, How to Write and Publish a Book in 90 Days, to get started!