A flood of reader-driven Q&A books, including ‘Shadow Work Journal’ that rose to number one on Amazon
The self-development book ‘Shadow Work Journal’ (Pureunsup), published domestically at the end of last month, looks like a notepad at first glance. Only 30 out of 240 pages are written, and the rest are blank spaces that readers must fill in themselves. On the first page, there is a signature section with the phrase, ‘I, ○○, pledge to work on personal growth and acceptance starting today.’ Then, the reader is asked to write answers to questions such as, ‘How important is my happiness to me?’, ‘How do I express my love for myself?’, and ‘Write down when you feel your anger melt away like snow.’
The purpose is to help readers discover their potential through the process of recording their unconsciousness, based on the concept of the ‘shadow’ of Swiss psychoanalyst Carl Jung. The book has sold over 1 million copies in the United States since its publication in 2021, and has ranked first on Amazon’s comprehensive rankings.
Recently, unique self-help books that readers fill in the blanks themselves have been published one after another, attracting attention. The author of the best-selling “Giant’s Note” (Dasan Books), Professor Emeritus Kim Ik-han of the Graduate School of Records and Information Science at Myongji University, recently published “Mind Box” (Dasan Books), also includes a Q&A section for readers to fill in themselves. It introduces a six-step “thought organization method” for creating your own outlook on life and encourages readers to put it into practice. Two weeks after its publication, the book ranked second in the self-help section of the online bookstore Aladdin. The appendix, which only had Q&A sections, sold out in one day and went into additional production.
Dr. Kim Mi-seon, who has been in charge of psychological counseling for badminton player Ahn Se-young and professional gamer Faker, has included a ‘real-life mental strength’ record sheet in her new book, ‘Practice without thinking about failure’ (Sam & Parkers). It has you memorize the content by writing down words that come to mind in the picture depicting the brain structure. The original question-and-answer self-development book, ‘Q&A to myself in 5 years’ (Tornado), published in 2015, has sold out in limited editions over the past three years. This book is in the form of a diary where you answer the question of the day every day. You can write down five different answers to the same question over the past five years, so you can see at a glance what kind of growth and changes you have gone through.
The publishing industry sees the rise of Q&A-style self-help books as a reflection of the trend toward preferring experiential content. Publishing critic Pyo Jeong-hun said, “These days, readers prefer to experience and realize the effects themselves rather than having the author unilaterally impart knowledge,” and explained, “The structure of sentences and books is changing to be more reader-friendly.” Kim Dan-bi, team leader of content business 7 at Dasan Books, said, “Self-help book readers can confirm their own growth through the results they have written themselves.”
Reporter Kim So-min [email protected]
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2024-08-14 06:19:01