Okay, I'm writing a self-help book for young adults in the 18 to 21 range. It's based on anecdotes and things from my life. Just a bunch of pearls of wisdom from a 23 year old who's seen and done some sh** in his time. My question is this; how long are such books? I know that some guides and self help books are the little tiny pocket-book variety. How many words are such things? I guess a more important question is this; does it matter? "How to Win Friends and Influence People" is a more mature and sober variety and it is some 230 pages or so, granted they are relatively small pages.
I think it's strange to want to write a self-help book and to not really know about that book market. I only know of 2 self-helpish books aimed for teens: Do Hard Things and 7 Habits of Highly Successful Teens. I actually don't have any friends who have read these books. I think the people buying them are people's parents or grandparents. But seriously, you need to go to a bookstore and see what the books that actually get chosen by publishing companies look like--the numbers of pages, the content, etc.
Hey, I had read the seven habits of highly effective... It is very interesting, you know. People don't read ebooks, because they think that it is so much long to read.
ditto that good advice from marina, about researching the business before trying to break into it... no market is that age-specific... has to be aimed at the entire YA market, or for the younger, 'tween' or older, 'adult' market... length varies... but why don't you go find some in the bookstores and wherever, and get that info for yourelf?... that will also give you a list of publishers who take them on, so you'll have a start on your query list... those are generally sold in supermarkets and greeting card shops, more than in book stores, and again, you'll need to do the research yourself, since i doubt anyone here will have an answer for you... yes, of course it matters!... because it will determine which publishers you can approach... i suspect only a few will take on the 'novelty' books you describe, while for a longer, 'normal' book, you'll find many more possibles... but again, even for the latter, there is a wide range of sizes... so, go to any large bookstore [or browse amazon] and see what the upper and lower limits of that range are... don't go by that, since it was written long, long ago and by a well-known professional writer and lecturer...
You know the kind of book I would have liked to have marketed toward me when I was a teen? How to read people, body language, all of it. I wish I had the knowledge I have now when I was in highschool. I could have had so much more fun than I did; although, I did have a blast.
