New Projects: Self-Help Books

My work on the Amazon platform has been gratifying in the extreme. Earlier in my career I had often published my own works for a small number of students in small numbers. At that time ebooks were non-existent and printing on demand was a distant vision. The seventy-six novels published on Amazon as ebooks and paperbacks, since December of 2011, have consistently done well and continue to do so.

I had also taken advantage of the format to publish eighteen of my works from my professional field of Psychology. That represented a very small portion of what I have written over the years.  I literally have a closet full of work from my years as a graduate school professor (Lesley University, Cambridge, MA) and as a hospital/Nursing Home Consultant.

The Amazon Publishing process allows me to bring some of that useful Mental Health material to the public in the form of short, more problem-specific booklets. I have written and published nine of these booklets. They are an exciting way of targeting mental health needs with helpful information, at low cost to the reader ($2.99).

Topic Discovery for Self-Help Books

When I began this project of publishing self-help works, the target was to find people where they live. What is it that people want to read about that can help them deal with their distress and difficulties? The first four topics were part of this search:

Dementia Examined: help for those dealing with dementia/alzheimer's

Hoarding Cure: what to do when living becomes overwhelmed by stuff

Scattered Mind: dealing with distraction, ADD, ADHD, focus problems

Loneliness & Betrayal: struggling with loss and aloneness, betrayed



Poetry

Before Kindle, I had self-published three books of poetry, a writing form that gave expression to my love of words and their innate power.  Poems are an artform that gives the reader a simple and direct pleasure. It is a gift I enjoy sharing. And I look forward to doing so in the future. Four books of poetry have appeared through Amazon: Spokes of Life, The Poet's Vision, Poetic Fires, Dancing Word Flames.