Last summer, a book changed Kohn Glay’s life.
A TikTok ad had directed him to “The Shadow Work Journal,” a small workbook that inspires readers to explore the hidden parts of their subconscious — their shadow, in the book’s vernacular. He ordered a copy and quickly returned to TikTok, fervently recommending it to his followers.
“If you’re on a spiritual journey, you should definitely go get one,” he says in the video, inviting viewers to purchase the book from the TikTok store.
The video went viral and was ultimately viewed over 58 million times. Glay, who is 43 and lives in Baltimore, began hosting online classes to guide people through newspapering. Over the next few months, people who watched his videos purchased more than 40,000 copies of the book on TikTok, and Glay earned more than $150,000 in commissions. In December, he left his job as a sales representative at Home Depot and now runs his own business, “Happy Healin,” which provides his followers with spiritual mentorship and coaching via Zoom sessions.
Glay is part of the army of TikTok influencers who helped make “The Shadow Work Journal” a mega bestseller. He is so closely associated with the book that people often think he wrote it. “It’s become a daily thing to tell people that I’m not the author,” he said.
The real creator of “The Shadow Work Journal” is Keila Shaheen, a 25-year-old Texas writer with a background in marketing who self-published the book in 2021 and has since been crowned “TikTok’s Self-Help Queen.” .”
After the diary blew up on TikTok, Shaheen sold over a million copies. Most of them – almost 700,000 copies – were sold through the TikTok store and marketed relentlessly by passionate influencers like Glay, who earn a 15% commission on each sale from Zenfulnote, Shaheen’s company.
Shaheen’s unusual journey to bestseller status shows how dramatically book marketing and sales have been changed by TikTok. In recent years, publishers have rushed frantically to harness the power of the platform as viral videos and influencer reviews have propelled sales of bestselling authors like Colleen Hoover, Emily Henry and Sarah J. Maas .
But Shaheen is perhaps the first self-published nonfiction author to gain significant exposure on the platform, a feat she accomplished by fully exploiting its potential not only for marketing, but also for sales direct.
Its astonishing journey has left many authors and publishers wondering if this formula can be replicated and how publishers can navigate the new online retail ecosystem – a rapidly evolving, algorithm-driven market that threatens to eliminate them completely.
“To think she sold a million copies in the United States alone, without a publisher, without any international expansion, without any physical media, that breaks all the rules of what makes a bestseller,” Albert said Lee, a literary writer. agent at United Talent Agency, which represents Shaheen.
Others wonder how big Shaheen’s self-help empire can grow. Earlier this year, Shaheen signed a five-book deal with Simon & Schuster, after months of being courted by major publishing houses.
Simon & Schuster won her over with an unusual arrangement: a seven-figure advance, plus a 50-50 profit share. Publishers typically give authors an advance and then a 15% cut of royalties if they recoup the advance. The deal included a new expanded edition of “The Shadow Work Journal,” released at the end of April, with an initial print run of 100,000 copies, as well as two new books by Shaheen.
“We really wanted to show Keila that we had a long-term vision,” said Michelle Herrera Mulligan, vice president and associate publisher Primero Sueño Press/Atria, the Simon & Schuster imprint that signed Shaheen. “There is still a huge untapped audience for this book.”
In person, Shaheen comes across as soft-spoken and reserved, not a hyper-motivated entrepreneur or charismatic wellness guru.
During an interview in late April at a Midtown Manhattan restaurant, Shaheen seemed slightly stunned by the flood of attention and money her book generated. The next day, she appeared on “Good Morning America” to promote the new edition of “The Shadow Work Journal,” then had meetings at the offices of her publisher and literary agent.
Shaheen, who suffered from acute social anxiety in the past, was surprised by his calmness, she said.
“I’m a big introvert, so that’s a testament to how much I’ve grown,” she said.
Shaheen first discovered the idea of side hustle in 2021, when she was feeling anxious and adrift in the wake of the pandemic. After graduating from Texas A&M with a degree in business and psychology in 2020, she found work in retail and online marketing, including as a creative strategist for TikTok. Coming out of Covid isolation, Shaheen felt disconnected and found working in a corporate environment overwhelming.
One day, while searching online for suggestions for keeping a therapeutic journal, she came across references to Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung’s idea of the shadow self, which states that parts of our subconscious can mask fears and emotions. hidden desires. She discovered a practice called shadow work, a somewhat fringe field that draws on Jung’s ideas to guide people in questioning their shadow selves, with the goal of accepting parts of themselves that make them feel guilty, ashamed or afraid.
Shaheen began posting videos on Instagram and TikTok about the shadow work exercises she was trying, and began receiving messages from viewers asking for a printed guide. So, in the fall of 2021, she self-published the journal and began selling copies for $19.99.
The first edition – which didn’t even have Shaheen’s name on the cover – was a slim paperback that guided readers through shadow work with interactive exercises, including Mad Lib-style fill-ins ( “When I was a child I was told not to ___, it made me very ___”), inner child affirmations (“I am protected”), and journaling prompts (“ What is your biggest fear in life?
Sales were slow at first. Then, in late 2022, TikTok expanded into online retail. The platform began selling products directly through the app and created an affiliate program that allowed influencers to post videos about products in the store and earn a commission. Once Shaheen started selling the newspaper through TikTok, requests poured in from influencers who wanted free copies in exchange for video promotion.
TikTok was quickly flooded with emotional videos from users filling the newspaper’s pages; some rejoiced, saying that the newspaper was cheaper than therapy.
The paper also arouses some skepticism. Some on social media have criticized the shadow work, calling it anti-Christian and even demonic. Others said it didn’t live up to the hype, or complained that their feeds seemed to be plastered with ads for the paper.
Still others questioned Shaheen’s credentials as a mental health guide. Shaheen — who is described in her author bio as “a certified sound healer and behavioral therapy practitioner” — has completed online training in cognitive behavioral therapy, but is not a licensed therapist.
Some experts in Jungian psychology worry that “The Shadow Work Journal” oversimplifies Jung’s ideas.
“What concerns me is that the shadow is really complex,” said Connie Zweig, a retired psychotherapist who has published several books on shadow work. “It can be risky to go exploring in the dark without advice or expertise. »
Shaheen said she always intended the journal to be an introduction to shadow work and not a comprehensive guide.
“The newspaper is supposed to be a bridge,” she said. “I wouldn’t say it’s created to replace therapy.”
In September, the book was number one on Amazon. In October, Shaheen met with two agents from United Talent Agency, Rebecca Gradinger and Albert Lee. The agency could help him build an international audience and sell his book in brick-and-mortar stores, they told him.
Shaheen signed with them about a week before the Frankfurt Book Fair, the largest international publishing rights fair, and the agency then sold translation rights to “Shadow Work Journal” in 27 countries, said Lee.
Shaheen was still reluctant to sign over the U.S. rights to “The Shadow Work Journal.” It was already a bestseller and “the initial offers were not convincing,” she said. His agents agreed that a typical publishing deal might not benefit him.
“Keila is at the forefront of developing this entirely new market and ecosystem,” Lee said. “It became very apparent that in traditional publishing we were all way behind what Keila was doing.”
Shaheen was attracted by Primero Sueño’s profit-sharing offer, which came with a plan to publish and market Spanish-language editions. Shaheen, whose father is from Puerto Rico and whose mother is Brazilian, saw the potential to expand her reach to Spanish speakers.
It remains unclear whether “The Shadow Work Journal” will catch on with a wider audience or whether it owes its popularity to a viral trend that has waned. So far, the new edition has sold nearly 18,000 copies, according to Circana Bookscan – an appreciable number, but hardly a success.
Herrera Mulligan, the publisher of Primero Sueño, said “The Shadow Work Journal” is just the beginning: “We really want her to be the new empress of self-help. »
Primero Sueño now aims to saturate the self-help market with Shaheen’s books and has established an aggressive publishing schedule, releasing two more of Shaheen’s self-published titles this year – one in July, another in October. The tracks, along with his poetry collection, are prominent on TikTok and have collectively sold around 100,000 copies on the platform.
She is also working on two new books: one on the origins and applications of shadow work and another called “The Light Work Journal,” which inspires readers to reflect on and improve upon their strengths.
And Shaheen, no longer held back by social anxiety, seems ready to step into the spotlight. Unlike the first edition of “The Shadow Work Journal,” the new edition features its name in large letters – under a banner reading “over a million copies sold.”