The power of stories and their impact on mental health: meet our partner Cherish Editions
Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
For people like us who work in the publishing industry, it is pretty much evident that books have superpowers: they spark emotions, make us travel through time and space without leaving our homes and more. But did you know that they can also heal?
Through bibliotherapy, a therapeutic approach that employs books and other forms of literature, they can have a positive impact on mental health. Our partner Cherish Editions and their parent company TriggerHub know it very well: they have based their mission on such premises. They have worked hard to elevate old bibliotherapy techniques by combining them with modern scientific research and bringing Book Therapy into the 21st century.
As they said in a recent interview with us: «Ultimately, we want to bring together a community of people who believe in the power of bibliotherapy, a recovery method that the TriggerHub group is dedicated to innovating and elevating. It is important to us that we create accessible and affordable recovery in the form of books for people worldwide. The power of stories with lived experience is undeniable».
Please read on to discover this and other inspiring ideas from our lively conversation with Soraya Nair, Cherish Editions Managing Editor. In the lines that follow, she will tell a little bit more about their incredible mission, their ambitious plans for the future and, of course, some new titles to get excited about!
What makes you unique from other publishers focusing on mental health and well-being?
We focus more on recovery than any other mental health and well-being publisher. All of our books have the theme of mental health and/or well-being, but we aim to produce books and authors who will inspire others to see that recovery is possible.
How do you think publishing in your market will change in the coming months?
I think it will continue to grow. With the impact of COVID-19 still rife in so many people's lives, the amount of people wanting to share their story or read someone else's story is just getting bigger.
What can readers expect in 2022? Anything you can share with us?
We have plenty of exciting books planned for this year, including a sequel to Molly's Tree, titled, Amie's Party - a series that includes the famous Mood Bears characters! Keep your eyes peeled for that book coming in August.
We also have a fantastic memoir from upcoming author, Abi Appleby, that we are looking forward to releasing. Abi's personal journey is so inspiring and she's a fantastic writer that we are proud to support.
Featured titles
What has it been like to work with the DropCap team?
Great! We have a great working relationship and have enjoyed the support we've been given for our authors and our titles and we look forward to seeing what else DropCap has to offer us! We'd love to see more translation deals coming in for our titles.
“It’s clear that mental health is still stigmatized in many ways and we want to destigmatize it and that is why being able to offer bibliotherapy is so important. ”
What challenges have you faced in the two years that led to the creation of the first platform ever to offer 24-hour mental health support to all your authors?
It's clear that mental health is still stigmatized in many ways and we want to destigmatize it and that is why being able to offer bibliotherapy is so important. Accessibility of this is key and that is why we have created our TriggerHub app which will have our titles available as eBooks and audiobooks to help offer more mental health recovery to people around the clock.
And finally, a fun one: what is the book you most want to see written but no one has written yet?
An interesting question! I would love to see more YA books that incorporate mental health struggles in their plots. Young people's mental health is a prominent topic in today's society, and it's covered a lot more in TV and film now so I'd like to see it in print too, but especially books that are written with young people in mind. Relatability is important for raising awareness.
We want to thank Soraya Nair for sitting down with us and answering our questions. You can learn more about Cherish Editions and the different books and authors that they represent here.
