With young readers increasingly looking for self-improvement books, HCM City publishers are happy to oblige.

The Vietnamese versions of The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking and How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by American writer Dale Carnegie are best-sellers.

"The Quick and Easy Way to Effective Speaking is interesting," says 20-year-old Thanh Hoa who wants to become an emcee, a much sought-after career these days, and is training for it at a cultural house in District 3.

"The book's professional advice on public speaking is really useful for me."

How to Stop Worrying and Start Living (Dac Nhan Tam) translated by Nguyen Hien Le and published in the 1950s has brought huge profits to many distribution companies.

First News Tri Viet, which has the Vietnam copyright, republishes it five times a year.

First News and Tre (Youth) Publishers have bought the copyright to hundreds of foreign self-help books and are publishing their translations.

The Vietnamese version of Life Changes When We Change by Andrew Matthew, The Present by Spencer Johnson, and Believe in Yourself by Joseph Murphy are gaining in popularity among young readers.

The HCM City-based Fahasa Book Distribution Company has sold more than 150,000 copies of I'm Gifted, So Are You by Singaporean entrepreneur Adam Khoo in the last two years.

"Many parents are too busy to teach their children and they buy our books," Pham Sy Sau of Tre Publishers explains.

Following the success of First News and Tre, many new publishers have entered the market./.