what are the top ten best sellers of all time in the self help market?
(In total numbers sold)
Please seperate out diet books.

Hello Qpet,

Thank you for accepting my answer. My search returned the following
results relating to all time sales of self-help books:

How do I win friends and influence people? - Dale Carnegie 
 
--15 million copies-- 
 
“This grandfather of all people skills books by Dale Carnegie was
first published in 1937. It was an overnight hit, eventually selling
15 million copies. It was the first book of its kind and still remains
the best book of its kind to lead you to success. “
http://www.empower2000.net/books/ 
 
 
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen R Covey 
 
--12 million copies-- 
 
“Dr. Stephen R. Covey is co-founder/co-chairman of Franklin Covey
Company, the largest management and leadership development
organization in the world. Dr. Covey is perhaps best known as the
author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, which is ranked as
a No. 1 best-seller by the New York Times, having sold more than 12
million copies in 32 languages and 75 countries throughout the world.”
http://www.imotivate.com/books_by_author.shtml 
 
 
The Road Less Traveled - M Scott Peck   
 
--10 million copies-- 
 
“M Scott Peck’s The Road Less Traveled (Rider £6.99), one of the
pioneering works of what is now a multi-million-dollar self-help
industry, which at the beginning of February celebrates its
twenty-fifth anniversary. It has spent more than a decade on the New
York Times bestseller list, been translated into 23 languages and sold
more than 10 million copies.”
http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,6109,882250,00.html 
 
 
Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus – John Grey 
 
--10 million copies-- 
 
“John Gray’s first book, Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus
(1992) has reportedly sold at least 10 million copies and has been
translated into 43 languages ("Club Med teams," 2000; "Los Angeles
Times," 1998).”
http://mailbox.univie.ac.at/~muehleb9/selfhelp.html 
  
 
Og Mandino 
 
--32 million copies of all his books-- 
  
“Og Mandino was a man who not only practiced what he preached but also
inspired millions to follow his example of successful, fruitful
living. The most widely read inspirational and self-help author in the
world today, his nineteen previous books--including most recently The
Spellbinder's Gift, The Twelfth Angel, and Secrets for Success and
Happiness--have sold more than thirty-two million copies in twenty
languages. The Greatest Mystery in the World is Og Mandino's final
book.”
http://www.imotivate.com/books_by_author.shtml 
 
 
According to the Empower 2000 listing of “Great Self-help Books - Best
Sellers”, the Bible is the greatest book ever written.
 
They also mention:  
 
Og Mandino, Dale Carnegie and Stephen R Covey 
 
The Precious Present by Dr. Spencer Johnson 
 
First Things First: To Live, to Love, to Learn, to Leave a Legacy 
by Stephen R. Covey, A. Roger Merrill, Rebecca R. Merrill 
 
The One Minute Manager by Kenneth H. Blanchard, Spencer, M.D. Johnson
 
Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In 
by Roger Fisher, William Ury, Bruce Patton 
 
Source: Empower 2000 
http://www.empower2000.net/books/ 
 
 
Tom Butler-Bowdon in his book “50 Self-Help Classics” includes the
following books:
 
“How To Win Friends and Influence People has now sold more than 17
million copies in its various editions.”
 
The Power of Positive Thinking: 
“Norman Vincent Peale was a minister in New York where his sermons
were so popular people queued around the block to hear him. His
classic, The Power of Positive Thinking, with simple anecdotes on how
to overcome adversity through strong faith, received more than 30
rejection slips from publishers before going on to be one of the most
successful non-fiction titles of all time.
 
“Titles such as Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence, Martin
Seligman's Learned Optimism and David Burns' Feeling Good: The New
Mood Therapy, have reached a new audience who may not have previously
considered reading Self-Help books.”
 
“Anthony Robbins' Awaken the Giant Within and Stephen Covey's The 7
Habits of Highly Effective People continue to be massive sellers.”
 
M Scott Peck's pioneering The Road Less Traveled  
 
Deepak Chopra's The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success a guide to
achieving prosperity through stillness and non-judgement.
 
Paulo Coelho's inspirational novel about following your dreams, The
Alchemist,
 
Marianne Williamson's A Return to Love 
 
Dalai Lama's The Art of Happiness.  
 
“Thomas Moore's Care of the Soul, a New York Times bestseller inspired
by the thinking of Renaissance men Ficino and Paracelsus, and Clarissa
Pinkola Estes' Women Who Run With the Wolves, a tour of the feminine
spirit based on archetypal psychology and indigenous storytelling. And
no Self-Help section should be without Viktor Frankl's Man's Search
for Meaning, Frankl's account of his time in Nazi concentration camps,
where he struggled to find reasons to live, and the psychotherapeutic
method he developed based on his experiences.”
 
Phil McGraw's Life Strategies 
 
Martha Beck's Finding Your Own North Star 
 
Source: Amazon.com 
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/tg/feature/-/437057/ref%3Ded%5Fln3%5Fh%5F1%5F1%5F2/202-6597352-0038261
 
 
“Self-help best-sellers of the '70s, including Power, Your  
Erroneous Zones, How to Take Charge of Your Life, Self-Creation,
Looking  Out for #1, and Pulling Your Own Strings, focus on the issue
of control.”
http://www.spunk.org/library/writers/zerzan/sp001183.txt 
 
 
The Top 10 self-help books by Susan Quilliam 
   
“Susan Quilliam chooses her ten favorites of all time - covering every
aspect of personal development from self-esteem, through love, sex and
family, to supporting other people.”
http://www.ivillage.co.uk/relationships/couple/commun/articles/0,,145_525860,00.html
 
 
Search Criteria: 
 
"self help book industry" 
Self-help book sales 
Self-help book sales millions 
Self-help book sales of all time 
Best selling authors of self-help books 
Self-help best-sellers of the century 
Top 10 self-help books 
 
 
I hope this helps! 
 
 
Best Regards, 
Bobbie7

Good afternoon Qpet,

I am posting this as a comment as I wasn’t able to locate a master
ranking of all time sales of self-help books.  Perhaps the following
information on sales of self-help books that I assembled may be
helpful.

How do I win friends and influence people? - Dale Carnegie

--15 million copies--

“This grandfather of all people skills books by Dale Carnegie was
first published in 1937. It was an overnight hit, eventually selling
15 million copies. It was the first book of its kind and still remains
the best book of its kind to lead you to success. “
http://www.empower2000.net/books/


The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People - Stephen R Covey

--12 million copies--

“Dr. Stephen R. Covey is co-founder/co-chairman of Franklin Covey
Company, the largest management and leadership development
organization in the world. Dr. Covey is perhaps best known as the
author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, which is ranked as
a No. 1 best-seller by the New York Times, having sold more than 12
million copies in 32 languages and 75 countries throughout the world.”
http://www.imotivate.com/books_by_author.shtml


The Road Less Traveled - M Scott Peck  

--10 million copies--

“M Scott Peck’s The Road Less Traveled (Rider £6.99), one of the
pioneering works of what is now a multi-million-dollar self-help
industry, which at the beginning of February celebrates its
twenty-fifth anniversary. It has spent more than a decade on the New
York Times bestseller list, been translated into 23 languages and sold
more than 10 million copies.”
http://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,6109,882250,00.html


Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus – John Grey

--10 million copies--

“John Gray’s first book, Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus
(1992) has reportedly sold at least 10 million copies and has been
translated into 43 languages ("Club Med teams," 2000; "Los Angeles
Times," 1998).”
http://mailbox.univie.ac.at/~muehleb9/selfhelp.html
 

Og Mandino

--32 million copies of all his books--
 
“Og Mandino was a man who not only practiced what he preached but also
inspired millions to follow his example of successful, fruitful
living. The most widely read inspirational and self-help author in the
world today, his nineteen previous books--including most recently The
Spellbinder's Gift, The Twelfth Angel, and Secrets for Success and
Happiness--have sold more than thirty-two million copies in twenty
languages. The Greatest Mystery in the World is Og Mandino's final
book.”
http://www.imotivate.com/books_by_author.shtml


According to the Empower 2000 listing of “Great Self-help Books - Best
Sellers”, the Bible is the greatest book ever written.

They also mention: 

Og Mandino, Dale Carnegie and Stephen R Covey

The Precious Present by Dr. Spencer Johnson

First Things First: To Live, to Love, to Learn, to Leave a Legacy
by Stephen R. Covey, A. Roger Merrill, Rebecca R. Merrill

The One Minute Manager by Kenneth H. Blanchard, Spencer, M.D. Johnson

Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In
by Roger Fisher, William Ury, Bruce Patton

Source: Empower 2000
http://www.empower2000.net/books/


Tom Butler-Bowdon in his book “50 Self-Help Classics” includes the
following books:

“How To Win Friends and Influence People has now sold more than 17
million copies in its various editions.”

The Power of Positive Thinking:
“Norman Vincent Peale was a minister in New York where his sermons
were so popular people queued around the block to hear him. His
classic, The Power of Positive Thinking, with simple anecdotes on how
to overcome adversity through strong faith, received more than 30
rejection slips from publishers before going on to be one of the most
successful non-fiction titles of all time.

“Titles such as Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence, Martin
Seligman's Learned Optimism and David Burns' Feeling Good: The New
Mood Therapy, have reached a new audience who may not have previously
considered reading Self-Help books.”

“Anthony Robbins' Awaken the Giant Within and Stephen Covey's The 7
Habits of Highly Effective People continue to be massive sellers.”

M Scott Peck's pioneering The Road Less Traveled 

Deepak Chopra's The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success a guide to
achieving prosperity through stillness and non-judgement.

Paulo Coelho's inspirational novel about following your dreams, The
Alchemist,

Marianne Williamson's A Return to Love

Dalai Lama's The Art of Happiness. 

“Thomas Moore's Care of the Soul, a New York Times bestseller inspired
by the thinking of Renaissance men Ficino and Paracelsus, and Clarissa
Pinkola Estes' Women Who Run With the Wolves, a tour of the feminine
spirit based on archetypal psychology and indigenous storytelling. And
no Self-Help section should be without Viktor Frankl's Man's Search
for Meaning, Frankl's account of his time in Nazi concentration camps,
where he struggled to find reasons to live, and the psychotherapeutic
method he developed based on his experiences.”

Phil McGraw's Life Strategies

Martha Beck's Finding Your Own North Star

Source: Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/tg/feature/-/437057/ref%3Ded%5Fln3%5Fh%5F1%5F1%5F2/202-6597352-0038261


“Self-help best-sellers of the '70s, including Power, Your 
Erroneous Zones, How to Take Charge of Your Life, Self-Creation,
Looking  Out for #1, and Pulling Your Own Strings, focus on the issue
of control.”
http://www.spunk.org/library/writers/zerzan/sp001183.txt


The Top 10 self-help books by Susan Quilliam
  
“Susan Quilliam chooses her ten favorites of all time - covering every
aspect of personal development from self-esteem, through love, sex and
family, to supporting other people.”
http://www.ivillage.co.uk/relationships/couple/commun/articles/0,,145_525860,00.html


Search Criteria:

"self help book industry"
Self-help book sales
Self-help book sales millions
Self-help book sales of all time
Best selling authors of self-help books
Self-help best-sellers of the century
Top 10 self-help books


I hope this helps!


Best Regards,
Bobbie7

A Google search seems to indicate that L. Ron Hubbard's "Dianetics" is
sometimes mentioned as the "all-time best-selling self-help book." 
Whether that book should  be properly classified as "self help" is, of
course, open to debate. Nonetheless, Publisher's Weekly does mention
that book as "the number one self-help book in history." See:
Publisher's Weekly, April 12, 1999.

Unfortunately, Publisher's Weekly doesn't seem to have an "all-time
best-selling" self-help list.

It might be possible to come up with your own list of, say, the
best-selling self-help books of the '90s by going through ten years of
annual bestseller lists in Publisher's Weekly (they generally come out
in a March issue). You could then pick out the self-help books and
total the annual figures. It wouldn't be very exact, but it'd probably
be close to what you need.

Good luck!

Hi bobbie7,
Your answer will do, go ahead and post it as an answer.
Best,
qpet