Topline
The self-help industry seems to still be riding its decade-long surge in popularity as four of the top five bestselling non-fiction books this year promise to help readers work through trauma, break bad habits and seize control of their everyday lives.
Copies of “Spare” by Britain’s Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, are displayed at a Barnes & Noble … [+]
Key Facts
Prince Harry owns the No. 1 bestselling nonfiction title so far this year, with more than 1 million print copies of his 400-page memoir Spare sold in the U.S.
The read promised a bombshell look at the “spare” heir, now fifth in line to the British throne, and included revelations that Harry started heavily using drugs at age 17, killed more than two dozen enemy combatants in Afghanistan and that he and his brother asked his father, King Charles III, to not marry his now-wife and Queen Camilla Parker-Bowles.
The other top bestsellers this year point to a continuing rise in self-help book sales, an industry that was estimated to be worth $9.9 billion in 2016 and grew to $13 billion last year, according to NBC News.
The list of 2023 bestsellers as of June 17 was provided to Forbes by Circana BookScan, which monitors U.S. sales.
The Top Five Books
1: Spare by Prince Harry the Duke of Sussex (1,174,137 print copies sold). Published in 2023.
2: Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones by James Clear (587,718 copies sold in 2023). Published in 2018.
3: The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel Van Der Kolk (289,701 copies sold). Published in 2015.
4: The 48 Laws of Power by Robert Greene (277,966 copies sold). Published in 2000.
5: The Four Agreements: A Practical Guide to Personal Freedom by Don Miguel Ruiz (247,211 copies sold). Published in 1997.
Key Background
Adult nonfiction sales got off to a slow start this year, lagging behind the growing adult and young adult fiction sectors, Bookscan reported. But “Spare” changed all that when it became one of the fastest-selling nonfiction books for adults since 2004, and one of the top three bestsellers in week-one sales. Only Barack Obama’s “A Promised Land” (2020) and Michelle Obama’s “Becoming” (2018) outsold “Spare” in week one. Prince Harry’s read is the only new release at the top of the bestselling nonfiction book list so far this year, which is padded out by self-help books. The self-help industry exploded between 2013 and 2019, rising from 30,897 published titles to 85,253. Motivational and inspirational books have been the most popular subject in the self-help category, Bookscan reported, followed by books that focus on creativity.
Further Reading
Self-help books get a lot of hate — but there’s more to the genre than literary snobs allow (NBC News)
8 Big Trends In Publishing In 2023 (And How Marketers Can Leverage Them) (Forbes)
