Why "self-help" was always the wrong shelf for this work
A category history of how the work of changing careers ended up filed alongside the wrong shelf — and what publishing it correctly would look like.
— Jon, Founder, Melbourne, Australia The bookshop has a section called "self-help" and most of the books in it promise the reader a different person. A career change does not need a different person. It needs different documents. This is a Note about why the wrong shelf has held this work for forty years — and what publishing it correctly would look like.
A handbook promises a tool. Self-help promises a person. The two are not the same — and the difference is the entire reason this publisher exists.
This Field Note is being written. Subscribe below to be notified when the full essay ships. In the meantime, the framing above is the seed it grows from.