November 3, 2004
There's something about self-help books I've been trying to figure out for the longest time. Very often, I will come across a book with a number in the title, like 5 Steps to Personal Power; or Divorce - 6 Ways to Get Through the Bad Times; or, my personal favourite, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Now, these numbers refer to the different ways we can deal with things and hopefully become healthier, wealthier, happier, skinnier or better in one way or another, so I always thought they ought not to be arbitrary. Yet, invariably, they always somehow end up being manageably, unintimidatingly small numbers? Is this a coincidence or is it through the design of the writers of these self-help books? I mean, if I did my research and found out that there are actually 37 very effective ways to deal with stress, should I write a book called "37 Ways to Beat Stress", or should I just call it 7 ways and downplay the other 30? I mean, let's face it, nobody is going to buy my book if, in the very title of it, I promise to make them remember 37 things. How would you react if I said "Buy my book - it'll change your life but you have to remember 37 things?" It just doesn't work, does it? People want the remedy for all their insecurities, but they want it simple.
So, what is the magic number? According to George A. Miller it is 7, plus or minus 2 (which is the same as saying it's between 5 to 9, but about 7). That is about as many items that the average person can remember in their short-term memory. But if you take a look at the titles of self-help books, you would be wise to keep the number down to a safe seven or less. If you are writing a women's magazine article on how many ways to tell your lover is cheating, or about the steps to take to get a raise, you might get away with ten. However, if you are going to sell a book and get rich on it, the safest bet would be for your list to be 7 items or shorter.
What if your list is longer than 7? My advice for you then would be to do with Dr Stephen R. Covey did and publish the first seven in one book and then published the 8th in a sequel. (Btw, those of you who are interested can order Dr Covey's book, The 8th Habit now through Amazon.com). That way, not only can you milk this cash cow for all it's worth, you will be able to have a whole new series of talks and seminars based on the strength of your second book. You can call it something like "What You Didn't Get For Your First $500". And if anybody complaints that the effect of your first two books are anything less than life-changing, you can always come up with a third book and ask them to buy the complete series to get the full effect.
I have always been intrigued by books like Dr. Covey's even though, or perhaps because, I've never found the motivation to buy one of them. In fact, I am more than a little afraid of the people who read them and my secret fear is that I would become one of them if I ever opened up one of these books by mistake. Nevertheless, the content aside, I've always found the books themselves to be fascinating. I wish I could meet Dr. Covey in person because there are things I have just got to ask him. The first, of course, would be "How do you come up with a book-length presentation on something as simple as 7 habits?" If it's just 7 things I have to remember, wouldn't that just fit on one page? Can't I just receive that in one of my several hundreds of forwarded daily emails and save myself the money? And if I do get and read the book, do I still need to go to the seminars? Because I have friends who have done both and apart from their vocabulary, they don't seem to have changed at all.
Of course, I'll also need to ask him what "effective people" are, exactly. I don't claim to be an expert on grammar but I've done a good amount of reading over the years and I do understand the word 'effective' and I understand the word 'people' but when you put them together, I just cannot process the meaning. Is this a homograph that I don't know about, or a slang, or bad grammar, or a typo or what? Maybe I do need to read the book. Perhaps from the 2nd page onwards, it explains what 'effective people' really are and why I should strive to be one.
- Sim
