Self Help

hmm.. no. I suppose the author can call it a self help book and it is so-called because it is implicitly promising you that if you help yourself with that book, you are helping yourself. Reference is a good word. However, we are not into any hypothesis or thesis writing. Self help book aims to impart the knowledge of the person who wrote that book to help the readers. Hence, I accept it being called a self-help book.

Wrote what? If they write something things which others can use it as a reference book, rules and regulations book, or cook book, or for that matter any manual can be called as self help book.

I think they call it that since you have to read the book by yourself and then perform the actions described in the book by yourself and when you managed to achieve your target, then you have to congratulate yourself and if you can't solve anything, then help yourself to another self help book. LOL!