24 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ OCTOBER 14, 2019
encouraging them to examine their beliefs and change their
behaviors for the better. That, says Todd Stocke, senior v-p and
editorial director of Sourcebooks, “is the essence of the self-help
category.”
Me and White Supremacy (Sourcebooks, Feb. 2020) has its roots
in an Instagram hashtag that black feminist writer and speaker
Layla F. Saad started in 2018, which challenged people to post
how they were complicit in upholding white supremacy. The
accompanying self-published workbook was downloaded
90,000 times and has been expanded with broader context
into the forthcoming book, which, Stocke says, “invites self-
examination so the reader can look closely at their beliefs,
deconstruct the harmful ones, and rebuild their beliefs and
behaviors in a way that helps them be more aligned with their
values and the person they want to be.”
In Dress Your Best Life (Little, Brown Spark, Apr. 2020),
Dawnn Karen, an instructor at FIT and a self-described fashion
psychologist, draws connections between mood and wardrobeSelf-Care
Resistance
for the
The latest self-help titles strive for inclusivity,
offering support to those who’ve felt left out of the conversationBY JASMINA KELEMEN
G
ender stereotypes, once a hallmark of self-help
titles, have largely given way to self-deprecating
humor and tough love—a course correction
that coincides with the genre’s expanded reach
and sales. But for the politically plugged-in,
troubling blind spots remain.
“A lot of self-help has not necessarily been helpful,” says
Jolenta Greenberg, who read and followed the rules of 50 self-
help books in an experiment she chronicles with Kristen Meinzer
in the forthcoming How to Be Fine (Morrow, Mar. 2020). “It
teaches people hacks or ways to survive and feel good about your-
self within social structures that may be inherently sexist or
unfair.” (For our q&a with Greenberg and Meinzer, see “Self-Help
Test Kitchen,” p. 32.)
Forthcoming self-help titles push back against the commercial-
ization of the quest for well-being, encapsulate concerns for the
greater good, and assure those feeling burned-out by the demands
and complexity of modern life that it’s okay—even necessary—to
relax and make time for small indulgences. The
authors of these books are reclaiming the concept of
“self-care” from its current goopy connotations and
hearkening back to Audre Lorde, the self-described
“black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet” who is believed
to have coined the term when she wrote in 1988’s A
Burst of Light that the very act of caring for her body
was an act of resistance.The Awakening
Guides on topics as varied as fashion, meditation,
and racial privilege seek to rouse their readers,continued on p. 30