"That man is happiest who lives from day to day and asks no more, garnering the simple goodness of life.” A quote from the latest self-help book? No, it’s Euripides, writing in 424 B.C.E. Such advice doesn’t go out of style: in fact, books about living the happy life have been in vogue for the past two decades.

In 1998, Martin Seligman, then president of the American Psychological Association, drew attention to the discipline of positive psychology. That same year saw the publication of The Art of Happiness by the Dalai Lama and psychiatrist Howard Cutler (Riverhead), which, to date, has sold upwards of 570K units in hardcover, according to outlets reporting to Nielsen BookScan; four years later, Seligman further popularized his ideas in Authentic Happiness (Free Press), which, to date, has sold more than 150K in hardcover and paperback.

Many variations on the theme followed, among them Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert (Knopf, 2006), The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin (Harper, 2009), and Super Brain: Unleashing the Explosive Power of Your Mind to Maximize Health, Happiness, and Spiritual Well-Being by Deepak Chopra and Rudolph Tanzi (Harmony, 2012).

Has the happiness market reached the saturation point? This year, America was #24 in Gallup’s ranking of the world’s happiest countries. Among the many self-help titles coming this season—the category as a whole is up 12% over 2013, according to BookScan—are a flood of books purporting to help boost readers’ moods amid the frantic pace of life circa now.

“Everybody is completely overwhelmed with work, with email, with Facebook,” says Bill Wolfsthal, associate publisher at Skyhorse. Amid all of the technological changes, he adds, “we’re all looking for ways to make ourselves happy.”

The Science of Happiness

For many self-help publishers, this is a transitional moment. “Happiness used to be a topic that authors treated as a soft, very personal, very-vague-but-attainable goal,” says Marnie Cochran, executive editor at Ballantine. “The books were much more motivational and rah-rah.” Now, she says, neuroscience lights the way, as several forthcoming titles show.

In Raising Happiness (Ballantine, 2010), sociologist and happiness expert Christine Carter, who directs the parenting program at UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center, laid out a 10-step plan for “more joyful kids and happier parents.” For The Sweet Spot: How to Find Your Groove at Home and Work (Ballantine, Jan. 2015), Carter translates her knowledge of the psychology and neuroscience of happiness into practical advice for navigating the demands of modern life, explaining that there’s no need to “dramatically change your career or move to the woods without your smartphone.”

Neurobiologist Amy Banks, a former psychiatry instructor at Harvard Medical School, demonstrates that happiness requires connecting with others in Four Ways to Click: Rewire Your Brain for Stronger, More Rewarding Relationships, written with Leigh Ann Hirschman (Tarcher, Feb. 2015). Banks, who is currently director of advanced training at the Jean Baker Miller Training Institute at Wellesley Centers for Women, warns that cutting oneself off from others may cause “a neurological cascade that can result in chronic irritability and anger, depression, addiction, and chronic physical illness.”

Uncovering Happiness: Overcoming Depression with Mindfulness and Self-Compassion by Elisha Goldstein (Atria, Jan. 2015) aims to bring hope to those in a deep slump. In it, the author, a California psychologist, explores the “major breakthroughs in what we know about depression’s triggers and treatments.” Originally published in the U.K. in February 2014, This Book Will Make You Happy, by London clinical psychologist Jessamy Hibberd and Jo Usmar (Quercus, Jan. 2015), offers cognitive-behavioral techniques to combat depression.

“Dreamers are not often doers,” writes NYU and University of Hamburg psychology professor Gabriele Oettingen in Rethinking Positive Thinking: Inside the New Science of Motivation (Current, Oct.). The guide, which Stumbling on Happiness author Daniel Gilbert calls “a wise delight,” aims to help “individuals who are stuck and don’t know what to do about it.”

Quick Hits

Pharrell Williams’s chart-topping single “Happy,” released toward the end of 2013, offers pure neo-soul joy in just under four minutes. It doesn’t take much longer to peruse a bite-size tip or two from several forthcoming books.

Workman is releasing a 25th anniversary edition of lexicographer Barbara Ann Kipfer’s 14,000 Things to Be Happy About (Oct.), updated with more than 4K new entries, many just a few words long—“caramel gelato,” “correcting the auto-correct.” The 1990 and revised 2007 editions have sold a combined 1.25 million copies, according to the publisher.

In the newly published Happiness Is… 500 Things to Be Happy About (Chronicle), cartoonist-spouses Lisa Swerling and Ralph Lazar illustrate modern sources of joy, including “recovering data from a dead computer” and the “sweet pain after a hard workout.” And A Year of Daily Joy: A Guided Journal to Creating Happiness Every Day by Jennifer Louden (National Geographic, Dec.) offers short quotes, exercises, and meditations.

Classical Teachers and Contemporary Gurus

Who knew that Adam Smith, the father of modern economics, was also a self-help author? In How Adam Smith Can Change Your Life: An Unexpected Guide to Human Nature and Happiness (Portfolio, Oct.), Russ Roberts, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, seeks to resuscitate Smith’s 1759 advice treatise The Theory of Moral Sentiments, in which Smith asks, “What can be added to the happiness of the man who is in health, who is out of debt, and has a clear conscience?”

Great thinkers were mulling over that question long before Smith. Happiness: A Philosopher’s Guide by Frédéric Lenoir (Melville House, Apr. 2015) examines the musings of Aristotle and Epicure, Buddha and Spinoza, and many others. The original edition, Du bonheur, un voyage philosophique, has sold more than 210K copies since its 2013 publication in France.

In October, Conari is bringing back into print 2005’s The Happiness Makeover: Teach Yourself to Enjoy Every Day, originally published by Crown Archetype and written by Conari cofounder M.J. Ryan. And in March 2015, NAL will publish Seeking Serenity: The 10 New Rules for Health and Happiness in the Age of Anxiety by CNN health columnist Amanda Enayati.

Gretchen Rubin scored big with The Happiness Project, which, to date, has sold more than a million copies and spawned a journal, a calendar, and a sequel, Happier at Home (Harmony, 2012). In her newest offering, Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives (Mar. 2015), Rubin, whose books have been translated into 35 languages, writes: “So many people tell me, ‘I know what would make me happier, but I can’t make myself do what it takes.’ Habits are the solution.”

Have a Happy Recovery

Hazelden, best known for its 12-step titles, is publishing The Next Happy: Let Go of the Life You Planned and Find A New Way Forward by Tracey Cleantis (Feb. 2015). The author, a psychotherapist, puts forth a hard-nosed approach: “Call me the Dr. Kevorkian of dreams, if you must. Many have. But I wear the badge proudly. Someone’s got to tell it like it really is.”

Shelve Happy is the New Healthy by Dave Romanelli (Skyhorse; Jan.) with the inspirational books. Romanelli has dedicated the past 10 years, he writes, “spreading the gospel to slow down, live in the moment, and celebrate life.” He advocates yoga and meditation as a means to achieve happiness, though he acknowledges that he’s waging an uphill battle, quoting neuropsychologist Rick Hanson’s observation: “Your brain is like Velcro for negative experiences and Teflon for positive ones.”

The proliferation of get-happy titles seek to reverse that Velcro-Teflon formula, with a focus on the upside of the equation. As Tracy Bernstein, executive editor of NAL, observes, “The self-help category has taken a decided turn from eliminating the negative—addressing specific problems like anxiety or difficult relationships—to accentuating the positive.”

Andrea Sachs, the publishing reporter at Time for almost two decades, is a freelance writer in New York City.

Below, more on the topic of self-help books.

A Selection of Self-Help Titles for Fall 2014 and Spring 2015