Unlock your potential. Turbocharge your productivity. Transform the ordinary into the extraordinary.

These are just some of the bombastic guarantees of self-help book titles, which make up a substantial portion of the staggering 11,000 business books published in the US every year. The US market for self-improvement books and audiobooks is huge: it’s worth over $1.5 billion a year, including non-business titles.

Around 11,000 business books are published in the US every year

So, which ridiculous buzzwords and jargon dominate? And are there differences between the irritating clichés of today and those popularised 20 years ago?

To find out, I gathered around 750 different business titles from various best-of lists, including New York Times business best sellers, books longlisted for the Financial Times and McKinseyBusiness Book of the Year Award and others.

Read more