A Self-Help Guide to Success in Publishing

“The bottom line,” basketball coach Rick Pitino writes in “Success Is a Choice” (Broadway), is this: “Nothing meaningful or lasting comes without working hard at it, whether it’s in your own life or with people you’re trying to influence.”

Millions of Americans suffer from osteoarthritis and most physicians consider it incurable, but the disease “can be stopped in its tracks or reversed” by two over-the-counter nutritional supplements, say the three authors of “The Arthritis Cure” (St. Martin’s).

Want to lose weight? Feel peppier? “Regardless of the specific nature of your need or concern, the information I have assembled in these pages will help you draw on your body’s own resources for natural healing,” Andrew Weil, a Harvard-trained physician and PBS personality, assures readers at the outset of his “8 Weeks to Optimum Health” (Knopf).

At a time when publishers are getting back increasing numbers of unsold books--the average return rate for a book rose last year to 35% of the copies printed--these and other titles that tell readers how to improve their lives or feel better are breaking through to the national bestseller lists.

Pitino’s book, which went on sale a month ago, when his University of Kentucky team was vying for a second straight NCAA championship, has been back to press four times, bringing the number of copies in print to 190,000. “The Arthritis Cure,” written by Jason Theodosakis, Brenda Adderly and Barry Fox, had an initial printing of 200,000 copies, which has since grown to more than 500,000. Weil’s “8 Weeks” started out in March with 225,000 copies. Now there are about 600,000 in print.

When self-help titles are grouped with other nonfiction books, the category shows remarkable popularity.

“It’s the most hotly contested category right now,” said Stuart Applebaum, senior vice president of the Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group. “The only category where consumers feel they have to buy now is the one that maybe will help turn their life around.”

Nine of the 25 top-selling books ranked last Thursday by USA Today were self-help titles. In Publishers Weekly, nine of this week’s 15 nonfiction bestsellers are self-help, counting John Gray’s “Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus” (HarperCollins), a book about relationships that has been a bestseller for four years. In addition, four of the 10 nonfiction books on Newsday’s regional bestseller list are from the category--Weil’s “8 Weeks,” “Joan Lunden’s Healthy Living” (Crown), Oprah Winfrey and Bob Greene’s “Make the Connection” (Hyperion) and “Suzanne Somers’ Eat Great, Lose Weight” (Crown).

“The category grew from [sales of] $291 million in 1991 to an estimated $462 million in 1995, a 59% increase,” according to “Trade Book Publishing, 1996: Analysis by Category,” a report published by Cowles / Simba Information, in Stamford, Conn. Defining the category as self-help, recovery and psychology--but not including health books--Cowles / Simba notes that the number of self-help titles in print peaked at 1,943 in 1992, concluding that, “much like cookbooks, books in this genre have a staying power of at least several years.”

Indeed, Weil’s 1995 book, “Spontaneous Healing,” is a national bestseller in its Fawcett trade-paperback edition. Barry Sears’ “The Zone: A Revolutionary Life Plan to Put Your Body in Total Balance for Permanent Weight Loss,” also published in 1995, is a bestseller along with the author’s recent follow-up, “Mastering the Zone.” Both are published by ReganBooks.

William M. Shinker, who acquired “Men Are From Mars” when he worked at HarperCollins, has made self-help books a cornerstone of the new Broadway Books, where he is president and publisher. Shinker said this week that he believes some of the more popular titles are helping to redefine the category, pointing to Pitino’s nothing-comes-easy message in “Success Is a Choice” as an updated approach to business motivation. Shinker also suggested that traditional weight-loss and diet books are not so hot anymore, replaced by the more holistic views of Sears and others.

The authors of seven self-improvement titles recently received the first annual Books for a Better Life awards, which were presented by the New York City chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society. Judging about 300 books were editors, talk-show producers, psychologists and other health professionals.

And the winners were . . .

* Rosalind Barnett and Caryl Rivers: “She Works, He Works” (HarperSanFrancisco), which offers advice to two-income families.

* Dr. Richard A. Isay: “Becoming Gay” (Pantheon), the psychiatrist’s exploration of his own coming out and the role that sexual identity plays in human development.

* Christina Middlebrook: “Seeing the Crab” (Basic Books), the author’s personal story of confronting a terminal illness.

* Thomas Moore: “The Reenchantment of Everyday Life” (HarperCollins), the former monk’s guide to “enchanted engagement” with the day-to-day.

* Virginia Morris: “How to Care for Aging Parents” (Workman).

* Patricia Raybon: “My First White Friend” (Viking), the African American writer’s account of her turnabout in dealing with white America.

* Barbara Sher: “Live the Life You Love” (Delacorte), a 10-step approach by a therapist and career counselor.

In addition, a special award was given to Jimmy Carter for “Living Faith” (Times), the former president’s so-called spiritual autobiography.