Publishing with New Harbinger

Our Editorial Mission - Real Tools for Real Change

For nearly fifty years, New Harbinger has remained dedicated to publishing practical, evidence-based tools for mental health professionals, as well as self-help books for general readers seeking to improve their lives and reach their fullest potential. Our cofounder and publisher, Matthew McKay, is a clinical psychologist whose passion has always been to help others. Publishing proven-effective resources that help people create positive change is our ongoing mission and the foundation on which New Harbinger was built. New Harbinger is proud to be an independent, employee-owned company.

We publish concise books that are easy for every reader to understand. Our authors are respected and experienced clinical professionals as well as active, involved leaders in their areas of expertise. Our dedication to these standards—expert authors, reader-friendly books—has made us the publisher of choice for both general readers and mental health professionals looking for effective, reliable information.

Why You Should Publish with New Harbinger

World-Class Authors

You’ll join the ranks of high-profile authors and distinguished researchers who are leaders in their fields, including Rick Hanson, Michael Singer, Steven C. Hayes, Edmund Bourne, Anneliese Singh, Robyn Walser, Rheeda Walker, Jeffrey Brantley, Susan Albers, Bob Stahl, Elisha Goldstein, Russ Harris, Evelyn Tribole, Elyse Resch, Virgie Tovar, Sand Chang, and many others. We strive to develop strong, long-term relationships with our authors.

Explore a complete list of our authors

Standard-Setting Books

We offer evidence-based self-help tools to help people improve their lives. Our books range from topics such as finding ways to reduce stress and live more fully in the moment, to dealing with more serious mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. Our books are used by therapists as an adjunct to therapy or as powerful stand-alone resources for those struggling with mental health disorders.

As a New Harbinger author, you’ll benefit from the well-established New Harbinger brand. For nearly fifty years, New Harbinger has been a trusted name in evidence-based self-help and professional resources. Our dedication to the highest standards has made us the first choice for both general readers and mental health professionals looking for effective, reliable information.

We have an expert editorial team. Each book receives individual attention. We work very closely with our authors throughout the development and editing process. Our editors understand how a book must be written to maximize reader comprehension, achieve favorable reviews, enhance professional user appreciation, and generate good sales.

Strong Long-Term Sales

You’ll sell more books. At New Harbinger, we pride ourselves on a strong front list and an even stronger backlist. This means that many of our books continue to sell year after year beyond the initial publication date. While sales vary for individual titles, the average New Harbinger book sells 5,000-plus copies the first year, and then reaches steady sales of 4,000 to 10,000 copies in succeeding years. Books we published six years ago have now sold 60,000 copies, and they will continue to sell at steady rates for years to come. The average book at a large publisher sells 5,000 to 7,000 copies total. We have backlist best sellers that have been in print for more than forty-five years and have sold more than one million copies.

We have direct relationships with retailers. Unlike many publishers, we do not work with an outside distributor. Instead, we benefit from an inhouse sales team that sells directly to the major chains, independent shops, and special markets, such as the spa market. Our team has well-established relationships with all major accounts where books are sold, from Ingram to Barnes & Noble and Amazon; from Costco to Walmart to Target; from independent bookstores to health food stores, wellness centers, and more.

We understand online discoverability and sales optimization. New Harbinger uses in-house search engine optimization best practices and metadata management to optimize the discoverability and conversion-to-sale of your book through all major online storefronts.

Translation Rights and Foreign Distribution

Your book may be translated into multiple languages. Our foreign rights director has more than thirty years’ experience and close personal relationships with foreign agents and publishers around the globe. New Harbinger also has an extensive, well-established international distribution network, including partners in Canada, the United Kingdom and Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.

Marketing and Publicity

Your book will benefit from targeted marketing strategies. Most of our books are marketed simultaneously to two audiences: therapists who will use the book with clients, and general consumers interested in personal growth and self-improvement. (By contrast, with very large publishers, many books are minimally promoted because most of the publisher’s money goes to pushing the 5 to 10 percent of books that have the potential to become best sellers.) At New Harbinger, you will have direct relationships with our team of skilled marketing experts, who will collaborate with you on title-specific, customized marketing and publicity.

Our staff attends the top psychological conferences. While large publishing houses rely only on brick-and-mortar bookstore and online sales, we attend and exhibit (and sell!) our books at major psychological conferences such as ABCT, APA, Psychotherapy Networker, and ACBS World Conference. We make sure that our psychology books reach a large audience of mental health professionals. It pays off: mental health professionals frequently recommend our books to clients, creating the word of mouth and loyalty that ultimately result in increased and lasting sales.

A Personal Note from Our Publisher,
Matthew McKay, PhD

What We Publish

We look for psychology and health self-help books that teach readers how to master essential life skills. Mental health professionals who want explanations of psychological techniques and health issues also read our books. Thus, our books must be not only simple and easy to understand but also complete and authoritative. Most of our authors are therapists or other helping professionals.

Theoretical Orientations

Many of our books are based on a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) approach. We believe that painful emotions and undesirable behaviors are often caused by distorted thoughts or inaccurate interpretations of events. To relieve a painful emotion or alter an undesirable behavior pattern, it is first necessary to uncover and change the underlying inaccurate self-statements. Cognitive therapy translates particularly well into the self-help format because it typically uses a lot of step-by-step exercises and homework.

We are also the leading publisher of books based on acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), and mindfulness-based techniques such as mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR). These third-wave therapeutic approaches offer many newer, research-proven techniques that are making a major impact on psychology. And increasingly, we publish books using body-based practices, neuroscience, and attachment theory, among other approaches.

Book Types and Formats

The following is a list of the types/formats of books we publish. These formats are optimized to reach and teach different kinds of readers.

Self-Help Books

An effective self-help book is one that teaches essential life skills. It isn’t about something—it teaches something. It may give information, spur insight, or inspire, but these are secondary goals. The primary goal is to train readers so that they can effectively deal with a problem. Our books address all of the major mental health issues, including:

Depression
Anxiety and panic
Anger
Stress
Trauma or post-traumatic stress
Building self-esteem
Parenting children with mental health issues

And more.

For examples of our self-help books, take a look at Stop Walking on Eggshells, Self-Esteem, Children of the Self-Absorbed, Disarming the Narcissist, Buddha’s Brain, Calming Your Anxious Mind, The Unapologetic Guide to Black Mental Health, Rewire Your Anxious Brain, and Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents.

Psychology Workbooks

We are especially known for our skills-based and practical self-help workbooks. Our workbooks offer detailed and effective assessments, exercises, and checklists that help the reader cope with a specific problem by practicing skills that are taught in the book itself. For examples of our high-quality psychology workbooks, take a look at The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook, Thoughts and Feelings, The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook, A Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Workbook, Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life, The Racial Healing Handbook, The Intuitive Eating Workbook, and The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook.

Instant Help Books for Teens and Kids

Instant Help Books offer easy and fun activities to teach kids and teens effective skills for dealing with a variety of mental health issues—skills they will continue to draw on throughout adulthood. Parents and therapists alike have found these books very useful in helping kids and teens cope with their feelings and thrive in the face of major life challenges. A few great workbook examples from our Instant Help series are The Anger Workbook for Teens, The Anxiety Workbook for Teens, The Shyness and Social Anxiety Workbook for Teens, The Self-Esteem Workbook for Teens, The Self-Compassion Workbook for Teens, Conquer Negative Thinking for Teens, and The ADHD Workbook for Kids. A few great examples of self-help books written for teens (from our Instant Help Solutions Series) are The Teen Girl’s Survival Guide and The Anxiety Survival Guide.

Professional Books

New Harbinger professional books are targeted to mental health practitioners such as therapists, counselors, psychologists, and psychiatrists and are meant to provide step-by-step help for practitioners wishing to add to their knowledge base. Three great examples of our professional books are Handbook of Clinical Psychopharmacology for Therapists, ACT Made Simple, and The Big Book of ACT Metaphors.

Gift Books

New Harbinger gift books are small-format books that offer inspiration as well as practical tips and suggestions for the reader. These books are entertaining and positive, and the help they offer is based on the most current research on effective psychological techniques. Gift book topics range from relaxation and self-nurturing to relationships and coping with stress. Some great examples of New Harbinger gift books are Just One Thing and Anxiety Happens.

Social Justice Handbooks

New Harbinger created the Social Justice Handbook Series to provide readers with practical, evidence-based tools to challenge and transform dominant culture in their daily lives and communities, increase equity, and improve overall mental health and well-being for themselves and their communities. Some examples from this series are The Unapologetic Guide to Black Mental Health, The Racial Healing Handbook, and The Self-Love Revolution.

Spirituality Books

We publish a select number of spirituality titles both through New Harbinger and through our Reveal Press imprint. Reveal Press offers wisdom and guidance for living consciously in our modern world, with enlightened perspectives for igniting deeper self-awareness, connecting to others, and finding relief from suffering. With these books, readers will have the tools they need for living fully awake and aware lives. This category includes books that guide, inspire, and support spiritual seekers on their transformational paths. Some great examples from this category include The Untethered Soul, The Untethered Soul Guided Journal, I Don’t Want to Be an Empath Anymore, and The Art of Psychic Reiki.

How to Submit Your Proposal

Your book proposal should give the New Harbinger editors a clear and specific idea of what your book is about. To be sure that your proposal accomplishes this, please include the following:

1. Prospectus

A two- to three-page overview of your book, including:

The precise problem the book addresses.
The new or breakthrough technique, approach or treatment modality you use to address this problem.
Three key selling points that make your book stand out from the others on the market (for example, 1. This is the only book available on this subject; 2. By the author of the best-selling book…; and 3. Five million people suffer from this affliction).
The intended primary and secondary audience for this book, including exact statistics about how large the market is.
An analysis of the competition. Find at least three books that compete with yours. Include the title, author, date of publication, publisher, and Amazon ranking of competing books (a ranking under 10,000 is best). Give us specific details about how your book is different and about the new and compelling information your book offers that the competition does not.

2. Author Background

3. Table of Contents

4. Two Sample Chapters

Summary of Our Submission Guidelines

For more detailed instructions see How to Submit Your Proposal, above.

You may submit your proposal via email to [email protected].

The email subject line should contain: Title: Genre and Topic. For example: Overcoming Anxiety: Self-Help for Anxiety
Your email cover letter should include the following:
1. The problem your book addresses.
2. The new technique, modality or approach to this problem.
3. The promise of this approach to your reader.
4. Three key selling points that make your book stand out from others on the market on the same topic.
5. The audience for this book, including specific demographic information.
6. Three comparable titles that are similar to the one you’re proposing.
7. Author bio: Please include a 1-2 sentence author bio.
8. Detailed table of contents.
9. Two sample chapters, preferably chapter 1 and one from the main part of the book.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, we are only accepting proposals sent via electronic media. No hard copies, please.

For publicity and marketing reasons, we generally do not accept proposals from authors residing overseas.

Due to the high volume of proposals we receive, the evaluation process typically takes two to three months. In all cases, we will get back to you as quickly as possible with our publishing decision. We look forward to reviewing your proposal.