The Top 15 Best-Selling Self-Help Books of All Time (2023)

FAQs

What self-help book has sold the most copies? ›

With over 700,000 ratings and averaging at 4.21 stars, "How to Win Friends and Influence People" is the best self-help book according to Goodreads members.

John Q. Benham of Avoca, Indiana, USA has a private collection of over 1.5 million books. As they have filled up his house, most of them must be kept in his six-car garage, two-storey building and piled under tarpaulin outdoors.

The first self-help group, Alcoholics Anonymous, was developed in 1935 to meet a need for better treatment, as many felt that medical professionals at the time were not adequately treating alcoholism. Today AA and other 12-step programs are among the most popular type of self-help organization.

37, No. 4, pages 370-377), about 85 percent of psychologists recommend self-help books to their clients. But with all the books out there-and more being published as you read this-how can a practitioner know which ones to recommend?

“The rich are voracious readers on how to improve themselves. They're reading self-improvement books, biographies, books about successful people, things like that, says Tom Corley, the author of “Change Your Habits, Change Your Life: Strategies That Transformed 177 Average People Into Self-Made Millionaires.”

If you ask any avid reader about some good books to read for beginners, they will definitely mention the Great Gatsby. Among the classic 20th century literature, The Great Gatsby follows the story of wealthy Jay Gatsby and his love for Daisy Buchannan.

Are there any successful self published authors? ›

Amanda Hocking is undoubtedly a star of self-publishing. Her success story started in an all too familiar manner as numerous agents and publisher rejected the manuscript she slaved over for more than a year. It was her first book, and ,unwilling to call it quits, Hocking turned to self-publishing.

I read fiction for pleasure but self-help for me is all about the ideas. Most non-fiction is full of fluff to reach a respectable number of pages. We know being concise makes a message much clearer but paradoxically we won't pay $10 for a 5-page book. It takes roughly 7 hours to read a 250-page book.

The familiar observation that the Bible is the best-selling book of all time obscures a more startling fact: the Bible is the best-selling book of the year, every year.

Tolkien, that lack comprehensive sales figures. According to Guinness World Records as of 1995, the Bible is the best-selling book of all time with an estimated 5 billion copies sold and distributed.

According to Wikipedia, there are nine books that have sold more than 100 million copies. Actually, the Bible, the Qu'ran, and Chairman Mao's Little Red Book are all over a billion copies, but I can't think of any way that including those three books is going to work out well for me, so we're sticking with these.

The Bible is the best-selling book of all time, having sold around 5 billion copies to date. The book had several authors and can be roughly divided into two parts: The Old Testament and the New Testament.

Detailed Solution. The correct answer is ​Bihar. Bihar has become the first state in the country to have 10 lakh self-help groups (SHGs) managed by women.

A SHG is a community-based group with 10-25 members. Members are usually women from similar social and economic backgrounds, all voluntarily coming together to save small sums of money, on a regular basis.

What is the ideal size of self-help groups? ›

The ideal size of an SHG is 10 to 20 members. (Advantage: In a bigger group, members cannot actively participate. Also, legally it is required that an informal group should not be more than 20 people.). The group need not be registered.

There are also sometimes significant disadvantages to self-help approaches as well. You may lack the perspective to properly understand the nature of your issues. Your ability to help yourself will only be as good as your ability to be objective and clear about what the nature of your issues is.

Reading motivational and self-help books is also a great choice for bedtime as our brain requires positive thoughts to relax.

Yes! Reading can help with anxiety by easing stress and helping your body and mind relax. Some doctors even incorporate bibliotherapy (treatment through the use of books) for patients with mental health conditions.

Amazon pays out a 35% royalty rate for books priced at $0.01-2.98 or any book over $9.99. However, if you list your Kindle book within the preferred $2.99 – $9.99 range, you'll earn 70% royalties on all book sales.

What is the 5-hour rule? The 5-hour rule is the concept of spending at least one hour every workday consciously learning new things or practicing various activities. Doing so can help you gain new skills and knowledge, which can lead to both personal and professional development.

They focus on biographies, self/career improvement books packed with principles, lessons, mistakes, observations, successes and experiences, industry-related books, building wealth books and history books that changed economies.

Self-help writers never just get to the point, they dance around it for hours and then leave you with something you already knew, you now just know it in 8 different wordings. If it were simply the lessons, I would be more keen on self-help books. But instead you're constantly confronted by forceful self-promotion.

Should you read 3 books at once? ›

Absolutely yes. Reading more than one book lets you read depending on your mood. You also enjoy different reading mediums – print, e-books, and audiobooks. People will often wonder if you won't get things mixed up, like characters or plot details, or if you would not take longer reading multiple books.

How Many Books Should You Read at a Time? Even though no official studies have been made in this area, the general consensus between readers on Reddit seems to be that anything between 3 and a whopping 15 books is an acceptable number of books to be involved in at once.

A 30-year-old went from writing as a hobby to making $1.8 million in a year self-publishing on Amazon. Here's how he did it in less than 5 years and his best advice to other writers. Dakota Krout was a newly married full-time student making $11,000 a year from two jobs.

Promote yourself on social media

Popular influencers know the importance of posting regularly, plus how and where to showcase their personal brand. I say where because you don't have to be present everywhere. The most important part is to figure out on which platform your audience is and start being present there.

How much can authors expect to earn from their books? A first-time author with a traditional publishing deal might expect an advance of $1,000-$10,000 and 5-18% royalties once they “earn out” their advance. Self-published authors do not receive advances, but their royalties can reach up to 70% for ebook editions.

Three types of Self-Discipline

Here are examples of three types: active discipline, reactive discipline, and proactive discipline.

The five pillars of self-discipline are: Acceptance, Willpower, Hard Work, Industry, and Persistence.

With the Personal development industry slowly but steadily growing, the self-improvement market is expected to rise to $14.0 billion by 2025. Estimates of self-help books sold each year put the number at around 10 million.

But most of the time it's not that easy. Self-help authors need to read up on literary agents, editors, and types of publishers. Only then can the real work of getting published begin. We recommend you start with our Free Publishing Tool Kit if you're new to the book biz.

How much should a self-help book cost? ›

Weigh your page and word count against the pricing of various best sellers in your genre. On average, paperbacks run between $9.99 and $19.99 US depending on the genre and whether it's nonfiction or fiction. Of course, a hefty textbook is going to cost a whole lot more than a slim self-help book or devotional.

According to Guinness World Records, Agatha Christie has the title of “world's best-selling fiction writer,” with estimated sales of over 2 billion. UNESCO also lists Christie as the most translated author in history.

The average self-published book sells 250 copies. The average self-published author makes $1,000 per year from their books. 33% of self-published authors make less than $500 per year. 90% of self-published books sell less than 100 copies.

The best-selling book of all time is the Christian Bible.

Regarded as a life-changing read by many readers, The Secret by Rhonda Byrne is a self-help book that embarks to motivate the reader about a universal paradigm about success that can be achieved though it remains hidden for most people.

The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho

What the hell? Either the Wikipedia page for this book was written by a drunk person, or this book is insane. Either way, it sold more than 150 million copies and is one of only two books on this list published since I was born.

Published by Ol James on 29/05/2022

Of course, there's still a chance to earn money, although it may not be enough to quit your day job. Even still, many aspiring writers want to know how many books they need to publish to start earning an income. You need to publish one book to make money.

However, books for kids ages 4 to 8 enjoyed the highest sales volume overall, with 88 million units sold in 2021 versus 64 million units of middle-grade books.

How many books do you need to sell to be successful? ›

In the book's lifetime

By comparison, the average traditionally published book sells 3,000 copies, but as I mentioned above, only about 250-300 of those sales happen in the first year. For a traditional publisher to think of a nonfiction book as a success, it has to sell more like 10,000 copies over its lifetime.

The Bible. Easily the most read book in the world is the Bible for obvious reasons. It is estimated to have sold over 40 million copies in the last 60 years.

Here's the essence of The Secret book in 3 lessons: The law of attraction is one of the most prevalent principles in the world. To use the law of attraction, you must think about what you want, not what you want to avoid. The three steps of the law of attraction are asking, believing, and receiving.

1. Agatha Christie. A discussion of the best mystery writers usually starts with Agatha Christie. She is the best-selling author of all time, with 66 mystery books under her name.

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

Despite the success of the book, Iranian officials placed a ban on the novel in 2011. The only explanations were given by Iranian literary critics; the writing was considered too strong and frequently alluded to drugs and magic.

Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling is the best-selling book series in history. The first novel in the series, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, has sold in excess of 120 million copies, making it one of the best-selling books of all time.

The entire "Harry Potter" series has sold about 500 million copies to date, with this first book selling the most copies of any installment in the series.