A Spirited Discussion: Mind, Body, and Spirit 2015/2016

The difference between spirituality and religion can be hard to pinpoint, which is just one reason the mind, body, and spirit category is among the most wide-ranging and complex in the book market.

Still known by many as New Age, MBS includes topics that range from astrology to unexplained phenomena, according to BISAC subject headings. And to add a layer of complication, the Book Industry Subject Group, which develops and maintains the BISAC subject headings, calls the MBS category body, mind, and spirit.

Determining what is and is not an MBS title is difficult, because the category’s topics overlap with those found in religion, self-help, health and fitness, psychology, and philosophy. For example, mindfulness and meditation falls under the MBS umbrella, according to BISG, even though the practices stem from Buddhism, which is listed under religion.

So we decided to go to the source and ask publishers to define what the MBS category means to them.

Where the Mind, Body & Spirit Moves You

For New World Library, says editorial director Georgia Hughes, MBS books must “integrate spiritual aspects with a lot about the body. The trend I see is a bigger integration of what it means to be human, of philosophy, psychology, spirituality, and physical fitness.”

At HarperElixir, a new line of books from HarperOne, senior v-p and publisher Claudia Riemer Boutote defines MBS books in terms of her audience. “It goes to that person who is spiritual but not religious, and who has that yearning for something a little deeper,” she says. The first HarperElixir titles, which include a new book by The Four Agreements author Don Miguel Ruiz, pub this fall.

Mitch Horowitz, v-p, director of backlist and reissues at Penguin’s new Tarcher Perigee combined imprint, calls therapeutic spirituality the North Star of MBS titles. “The first thing I ask myself is, does this program or recovery or crisis management have some kind of a spiritual component? If the answer is yes, it fits in MBS,” he says. “There has to be a spiritual component; otherwise you’d be looking at a work of cognitive psychology.”

Offering another take on the MBS subject heading is Michael Kerber, president of Red Wheel/Weiser. He says that publishers don’t define MBS—the media and booksellers do, and he contends that those outlets don’t quite know where to categorize books outside of the mainstream.

“When we get a project in, we think about where it will go within a bookstore. Those distinctions are forced upon us,” Kerber says. “If our pagan and shaman and Wiccan titles would be shelved in religion or reviewed [as] religion, we would publish them in religion.” (Note: PW reviews titles about paganism, shamanism, Wicca, and other belief systems that are outside the mainstream under religion.)

What’s in a Name?

The issues with labeling a title MBS don’t end with category overlap. New Age, which is what MBS books were once more commonly called, came to be viewed by many in the field as a derogatory term. Because of this, booksellers and authors, as well as specialty magazine editors and workshop and retreat leaders, adopted the mind, body, and spirit label—but not all publishers are fully on board with it.

Kerber uses New Age and MBS interchangeably, but says that the MBS label can obscure the kinds of books Red Wheel/Weiser publishes—those on esoteric, occult teachings such as metaphysics, magick, astrology, tarot, and Eastern thought.

“Some bookstores really miss the boat on the power of MBS books, because they put MBS titles in self-help or personal transformation,” he says. “They miss the full range of MBS books.”

By contrast, Hughes at New World Library embraces the MBS label, calling it a much more inclusive and accurate subject heading than New Age.

HarperElixir’s Boutote says the New Age designation was originally a way publishers and other businesses could get a handle on a very wide-ranging subject area.

“I think it was fine—it helped in that initial burgeoning and mainstreaming of these topics,” she says. “But our culture has fast-forwarded, and I think we are redefining [what the category means].”

Horowitz says he “defiantly” holds on to New Age at Tarcher, despite the phrase’s association with fringe, “woo-woo” topics. “I don’t think we should let critics define the terms that we apply to ourselves,” he says. “[Otherwise] tomorrow, MBS will be seen as softheaded, and we will have to find something else.”

Reaching Readers

Regardless of whether they call the books MBS, New Age, or something else entirely, publishers agree on one thing: the category serves a significant audience.

“There’s a large segment of the population that doesn’t find what they’re looking for by traditional means or in established religions,” Kerber says. “There are a lot of questions about what we should do as a people collectively, and as individuals. All of that plays into the popularity [of the category].”

HarperCollins launched the HarperElixir line for what Boutote calls the seeker audience: those who frequent retreat centers, for example, and those who are bringing the concept of mindfulness into their business practices.

Hughes at NWL says that cultural shifts, such as the drop in the number of people affiliated with a traditional religion, has created opportunities for MBS publishers—because many of those who reject organized religion still hunger for spirituality.

“People are constantly looking for answers,” Hughes says, “and so they go to [MBS] books because they have always been a great way to learn anything—at your own pace, and by communing with the experts.”

Below, more on the subject of mind, body, and spirit books.