Although it may be a little early to start predicting hard and fast trends, the recent successes of two to all intents and purposes self-published health books may be highlighting an interesting phenomenon. Anxiety Rebalance by Carl Vernon made the overall Amazon UK bestseller list last month and is still hanging in and around the top 20. Learn to Live by Mats and Susan Billmark stayed on the top of the Swedish bestseller list for weeks last year and its English release looks to be following suit.

Is this all about the subject matter? Or are these authors taking these specific bulls by the horn with time-honoured self-publishing vigour and generating this considerable spike in on-line sales for themselves?

Some might say that the nature of these books’ subject matter lends itself to the anonymity and ease of online purchase. But the ideas presented in these books clearly work for a lot of people. They are being recommended and sold time and time again to readers who have a vested interest in finding solutions to their version of life’s challenges. All in all they both seem to illustrate the speed with which ideas packaged within good old-fashioned books can generate word of mouth and sales without what would be deemed to be the usual approbation of the filters and gate keepers.

In the end, these books are just different versions of the many that have preceded them. What’s interesting is that, in the right niches, amongst the right communities and hubs of collective interest, with the right insight and marketing, there is value in a direct to consumer approach via the trusted vehicle of a book. Spreading advocacy, amplifying content, selling units. With fewer people in the chain than ever.