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It's not Sorcery, this article here is “A Magical Writer’s Story” for all aspiring writers I know or to be. It’s about NY Times bestselling author of “The Shadow Work Journal” 25 year old Keila (Delgado) Shaheen. She contacted me through my Facebook page post about my CD. I remembered her from a friend request only I didn’t know who she was at the time. Said she’s a US author too looking to connect after reading my bio and some articles I wrote. I searched her name and “BOOM,” there she was a storyteller with an exciting story I wanted to tell you about. So what was usually a quick scan turned into a realization that this woman goes much deeper than surface level, there was substance here. She told me her book was based on the work of influential psychiatrist Carl Jung which obviously I’m also a big fan of. With his writings on “Synchronicity” and interest in the paranormal - he actually coined the term synchronicity in 1930. This immediately peaked my interest since as a freelance I get to write about anything and everything that catches my interest - I also related - so there was that too.
Since I first wrote about science or the supernatural I get contacted by many people around the world into UFOs, the paranormal, science, etc…. Magazines, TV, radio – people with shows or wanting material for articles - even other authors. One of the big pluses I enjoy about writing is finding others with shared interests. Writing from personal experiences like many other independents with Keila though it was all going into her journal. Desiring to share it with others however she simultaneously cracked the mold of the rest of the publishing world in a very big way… A shock even to her, self-introspection is so relevant to so many other people. Writing about her own personal struggles she struck a chord with a world full of others who related. So now you know I saw and read a lot of the mostly positive press about Keila to learn more. Good Morning America, The Today Show, magazines and other articles… People, Forbes, Billboard, NY Times, the new darling… had arrived with an organized random precision.
And of course since I only report the news, she doesn’t go unscathed - I also read a bit of the detractors…. The biggest criticism is that she is “uncredentialed” also that she’s a detriment to people who may need professional help. However she says she encourages people who may need professional help to take care in seeking out the right people. She doesn’t present herself as an alternative but rather another self-help tool for those who want one. This is also emphasized on her Zenfulnote website she started that anyone can join as a support site with others. And where more related material on “Shadow Work” along with Sheila’s nineteen other books and related topics are shared.
Another commonality: She picked out the words she writes from an almost biographical lessons chapter. Without having a clear motivation, reflecting on primordial life lessons themselves ‘like all of us’ drawing from and using them. With her however from some on the outside it all looks like a contrived plot – which it may very well be. A straight-jagged climb up another rung with a written script like in “Lucky Girl” one of her book titles. Though her being the author, she’s her own credibility and her own credentials too. So there go many criticisms about her credentials leaving her audience to judge for themselves as to whether they find her words useful. Again paraphrasing here; some of the criticisms are she’s uncredentialed, she’s not a therapist or Jungian, contrived, skinny...
To say she’s a fluke is not to detract from her ingenuity because she exploited the embedded consumer driven self-help apparatus that already exists. Earlier this year the “Harvard Business Review” reported that one of the leading uses of AI is therapy. Seems everyone’s engaged with introspection - but AI has no emotional empathy and cannot legally qualify for a therapy license. It does not comprehend the fundamentals of human psychology it simply uses algorithmic patterns. This for self-help can just as easily be filled with the “self” in many cases. Like some have found; I didn’t just want to write about her writer’s story though but of the potential positive influences for all other writers. I do see the need we all have to talk about what affects us – our passions. So and I get all the apparent passive prep she appropriated in her ambitions.
I heard asked: Who does her marketing anyway? Another good question - I want answered right? Well, her previous job was at TikTok itself, selling things where she was employed for a year as a creative strategist advising businesses how to make a success of TikTok. During which ‘btw’ she was rising at 4am to write the book before work. So yes, she’s obviously purpose driven and being relatively young Shaheen analyzed and deeply understood this new platform. The Shadow Work Journal came out in 2021 but it took off when TikTok’s new sales arm, TikTok Shop, launched in America. Shaheen paid for some advertising on TikTok and also benefited from readers creating their own promotions. Being able to earn commission on sales made for an army of committed publicists. In so doing Shaheen was the first to demonstrate TikTok as an alternative route to an unprecedented growth scale.
For many of us starting an endeavor begins with planning. Getting a degree, taking classes or whatever it is we think we need to do. I know cause I’ve been there and but our friend here did the same thing in short order form fashion. Keila got some formal education in Texas with university degrees in marketing and psychology also online courses in cognitive-behavioral therapy. Meanwhile however she got wound by TicTok and began picking up sales work for local businesses using TicToc videos. This made her realize an opportunity to mesh authenticity with marketing. Sidestepping and writing seems to come natural to some while going for the juglar. This Tik Tok strategist… she seems more like a juggler than the juglar type who became a juggernaut with a viral marketing campaign. And the rest of course is folklore!
What was legend is that as an independent author at first, she tried to do everything on her own. Sales, packaging, shipping and even shopping for packaging supplies buying out all the bubble wrap within miles radius. And that’s easy when you’re selling and shipping a hundred books. After an explosion it began with an order for 300 then 3000 then, she emptied out all her savings doing order fulfillment packaging, shipping supplies, postage and whatnot then everything changed.
After endless hours of labor, she needed help, then an agent, publisher, publicist; after selling a million copies of “Shadow Work Journal” on your own everyone was knocking on her door. Anyone can write a book review, but everyone seems to be writing about the author, even me - remember, “Reality is the ultimate benchmark!”
---Written by the author Robert Torres (2025)
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