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How a Self-Published Book, ‘The Shadow Work Journal,’ Became a Best Seller

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Last summer, a book changed Kohn Glay’s life.
A TikTok ad had ‎ him to “The Shadow Work Journal,” a slim workbook that ‎ ‎ to ‎ ‎ parts of their ‎ — their ‎ selves, in the book’s ‎. He ‎ a ‎, and soon was back on TikTok, ‎ recommending it to his followers.
“If you’re on your ‎ ‎, you ‎ need to go and get you one of these,” he says in the video, ‎ viewers to buy the book in the TikTok ‎.
The video went viral, ‎ drawing more than 58 ‎ views. Glay, who is 43 and lives in Baltimore, began holding online classes to ‎ people ‎ the ‎. Over the next few months, people who watched his videos bought more than 40,000 ‎ of the book on TikTok, and Glay ‎ more than $150,000 in ‎. By December, he had quit his job as a ‎ representative for Home Depot and now runs his own business, “Happy Healin,” which offers subscribers ‎ ‎ and coaching ‎ Zoom sessions. Glay is part of the army of TikTok influencers who helped ‎ “The Shadow Work Journal” into a mega best seller. He’s so closely ‎ with the book that people often assume he wrote it. “It ‎ a ‎ thing to tell people I’m not the ‎,” he said.
The real creator of “The Shadow Work Journal” is Keila Shaheen, a 25-year-old writer from Texas with a ‎ in ‎ who ‎ the book in 2021, and has since been ‎ “the self-help queen of TikTok.”
After the ‎ ‎, Shaheen went on to sell more than a ‎ ‎. Most of those — ‎ 700,000 ‎ — were sold ‎ the TikTok ‎, and were ‎ ‎ by passionate influencers like Glay, who ‎ a 15 ‎ commission on each ‎ from Zenfulnote, Shaheen’s ‎.
Shaheen’s unusual ‎ to ‎ shows how radically book ‎ and ‎ have been changed by TikTok. Over the past few years, publishers have frantically ‎ to ‎ the ‎ of the platform as viral videos and reviews by influencers have ‎ ‎ for blockbuster ‎ like Colleen Hoover, Emily Henry and Sarah J. Maas. But Shaheen is perhaps the first self-published ‎ ‎ to ‎ in a big way on the platform, a ‎ she ‎ by fully ‎ its potential not just for ‎, but for ‎ ‎.
Her ‎ ‎ has left many ‎ and publishers ‎ whether that formula can be ‎, and how publishers can ‎ the new online retail ‎ — a fast moving, algorithm-‎ marketplace that ‎ to ‎ them out ‎.
“The Shadow Work Journal” has a title in white letters ‎ on a black ‎. Below it is the subtitle and the ‎’s name, Keila Shaheen, also in white. An ‎ of ‎, decorative ‎ surrounds the text. “To think that she achieved a ‎ ‎ sold in the United States alone, without a publisher, without any international ‎, without brick and mortar ‎, it breaks all the ‎ of what makes a best seller,” said Albert Lee, a literary ‎ with United Talent Agency, which ‎ Shaheen. Others ‎ just how much bigger Shaheen’s self-help ‎ can get. Earlier this year, Shaheen ‎ a five-book ‎ with Simon & Schuster, after months of being ‎ by big publishing houses.
Simon & Schuster won her over with an unusual ‎: a seven-figure ‎, plus a 50-50 ‎ ‎. Publishers typically give ‎ an ‎ and then a 15 ‎ ‎ of ‎ if they ‎ back the ‎. The ‎ ‎ a new, ‎ ‎ of “The Shadow Work Journal,” which was released in late April, with a first ‎ of 100,000 ‎, plus two new books by Shaheen.
“We really wanted to show Keila that we had a ‎-term ‎,” said Michelle Herrera Mulligan, the vice ‎ and ‎ publisher of Primero Sueño Press/Atria, the Simon & Schuster ‎ that ‎ Shaheen. “There is still a huge ‎ ‎ for this book.”
Shaheen ‎ ‎ ‎ by the ‎ of ‎, and money, that her book has ‎. The next day, she appeared on “Good Morning America” to ‎ the new ‎ of “The Shadow Work Journal,” then had meetings at her publisher and literary ‎’s offices.
Shaheen, who has ‎ from ‎ ‎ anxiety in the past, was surprised by how ‎ she felt, she said.
“I’m a huge introvert, so that was a ‎ to how much I’ve grown,” she said.
Shaheen first ‎ the idea of ‎ ‎ in 2021, when she was ‎ ‎ and ‎ in the wake of the pandemic. After graduating from Texas A&M in 2020 with a ‎ in business and ‎, she ‎ ‎ in online retail and ‎ — ‎ a ‎ as a creative strategist for TikTok. Coming out of the isolation of Covid, Shaheen felt disconnected, and ‎ ‎ in a corporate ‎ ‎.
Shadow ‎ has helped her, Shaheen said, but it isn’t meant “to ‎ ‎.”
One day, while ‎ online for therapeutic ‎ prompts, she came across ‎ to the Swiss ‎ Carl Jung’s idea of the ‎ self, which holds that parts of our ‎ can mask ‎ ‎ and ‎. She ‎ about a ‎ called ‎ ‎, a somewhat ‎ field that draws on Jung’s ideas to ‎ people as they ‎ their ‎ selves, with the ‎ of ‎ parts of themselves that make them feel guilty, ‎ or afraid.
Shaheen started ‎ videos on Instagram and TikTok about ‎ ‎ exercises she was trying, and began getting messages from viewers asking for a ‎ ‎. So in the ‎ of 2021, she ‎ the ‎, and began selling ‎ for $19.99.
The first ‎ — which didn’t ‎ have Shaheen’s name on the cover — was a ‎ ‎ that ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ ‎ with interactive exercises. Sales were slow at first. Then, in late 2022, TikTok ‎ into online retail. The platform started selling ‎ ‎ ‎ the app, and ‎ an ‎ program, which allowed influencers to ‎ videos about ‎ in the ‎ and ‎ a ‎. Once Shaheen started selling the ‎ ‎ TikTok, ‎ came ‎.
TikTok was soon ‎ with ‎ videos of users filling out the ‎’s pages; some ‎ that the ‎ is cheaper than ‎.
The ‎ also drew some ‎. Some on ‎ media ‎ ‎ ‎ as anti-‎ and ‎ ‎. Others said it ‎ to live up to the ‎, or ‎ that their ‎ ‎ to be ‎ with ads for the ‎.
Still others questioned Shaheen’s ‎ as a ‎ health ‎. Shaheen — who is ‎ in her ‎ bio as “a certified sound healer and behavioral ‎ practitioner” — ‎ an online ‎ ‎ in ‎ ‎, but is not a licensed therapist.
Some ‎ in Jungian ‎ worry that “The Shadow Work Journal” ‎ Jung’s ideas.
“My ‎ about it is that the ‎ is really ‎,” said Connie Zweig, a ‎ psychotherapist who has published ‎ books on ‎ ‎. “It can be risky to go ‎ in the dark without guidance, without expertise.”
Shaheen said that she always ‎ the ‎ to be an introduction to ‎ ‎, not a ‎ ‎.
“The ‎ is meant to be a bridge,” she said. “I wouldn’t say that it’s ‎ to ‎ ‎.”
By September, the book ‎ No. 1 on Amazon. In October, Shaheen met with two ‎ from United Talent Agency, Rebecca Gradinger and Albert Lee. The ‎ could help her build an international ‎ and get her book in ‎ ‎, they told her.
Shaheen ‎ with them about a week before the Frankfurt Book Fair, the largest fair for international rights in publishing, and the ‎ then sold ‎ rights to “The Shadow Work Journal” in 27 countries, Lee said.
Shaheen was still ‎ to hand over U.S. rights to “The Shadow Work Journal.” She was already a best seller, and “the initial offers weren’t ‎,” she said. Her ‎ agreed that a typical publishing ‎ might not ‎ her.
“Keila’s at the ‎ of unlocking this ‎ new ‎ and ecosystem,” Lee said. “It ‎ very obvious that in traditional publishing, we were all ‎ behind what Keila was doing.”
Shaheen was ‎ by Primero Sueño’s ‎-splitting offer, which came with a ‎ to publish and ‎ ‎-language ‎. Shaheen, whose father is from Puerto Rico and whose mother is from ‎, saw the ‎ to ‎ her reach among ‎ speakers.
It’s still unclear whether “The Shadow Work Journal” will ‎ with a ‎ ‎, or if it owes its popularity to a viral trend that has ‎. So far, the new ‎ has sold ‎ 18,000 ‎, according to Circana Bookscan — a healthy amount, but hardly a ‎.
Herrera Mulligan, Primero Sueño’s publisher, said “The Shadow Work Journal” is just the beginning: “We really want her to be the new ‎ of self-help.”
Primero Sueño is now ‎ to ‎ the self-help ‎ with Shaheen’s books, and has set an ‎ publishing schedule, releasing two more of Shaheen’s self-published titles this year — one in July, another in October. The titles, along with her ‎ ‎, are big on TikTok and have sold ‎ 100,000 ‎ ‎ on the platform.
She is also ‎ on two new books: one about the ‎ and ‎ of ‎ ‎ and another titled “The Light Work Journal,” which ‎ ‎ to ‎ on and ‎ their ‎.
And Shaheen, no ‎ held back by ‎ ‎, ‎ ready to ‎ the ‎. Unlike the first ‎ of “The Shadow Work Journal,” the new ‎ ‎ her name in large font — under a ‎ that says “more than 1 ‎ ‎ sold.”
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How a Self-Published Book, ‘The Shadow Work Journal,’ Became a Best Seller | Leximory