MAIN NEWS HEADLINES
December 20 – December 27, 2007 Edition

New Harbinger
Collaborative Publisher
Buys Instant Help Books

OAKLAND, CA/12/12/07–New Harbinger Publications, an Oakland-based collaborative publisher has acquired Instant Help Books, publisher of workbooks for children, teens, and adults on topics such as depression, anxiety, and anger. The move makes Instant Help an imprint of New Harbinger and gives New Harbinger rights to twenty Instant Help titles. There will be seventeen Instant Help titles appearing on New Harbinger’s Spring 2008 list.

Founded in 1973, New Harbinger Publications is a leading publisher of self-help, psychology, and health titles, including the bestsellers The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook, Calming Your Anxious Mind, The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook, and Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life.

With the purchase of Instant Help, New Harbinger is positioned to provide younger readers with skills for dealing with mental illness, painful emotions, and difficult life situations that, without help, might cause problems into adulthood. These are skills, New Harbinger’s acquisitions department points out, that young people may not otherwise get, and skills that will last a lifetime.

“Instant Help books allow us to offer the same help to parents and children that we’ve been offering to adults with mental health and health issues for more than 30 years. We will now be covering the lifespan from childhood through adulthood,” says Tesilya Hanauer, associate acquisitions manager for New Harbinger and the acquisitions editor for future Instant Help Titles.

Instant Help Books is the creation of Dr. Lawrence Shapiro a noted psychologist with over two decades’ experience in both psychology and publishing. Shapiro is also the founder of Childswork/Childsplay, a successful catalog that offers counselors and educators games, print materials, and visual media. Shapiro sold Childswork/Childsplay in 1996.

Shapiro notes, “Instant Help Books has been successful in reaching mental health professionals and educators around the country, but New Harbinger has the expertise to put our books in the hands of the people who really need them­kids, teens, and parents.”

We have a long track record of producing practical, research-based self-help books that really work, so it was natural for us to begin to apply that knowledge to a parenting and child care line,” says Heather Mitchener, New Harbinger’s editorial director. “When we encountered Instant Help, we could see that the company had a clear focus on children and teens and a demonstrated level of success in helping them. Their style of self-help is comparable to the one we use for adults. It seemed like the perfect match from the start.”

Mitchener added that Shapiro will continue to develop projects for Instant Help and has already written several new books, including The Baby Emergency Handbook, which will be published in 2008.