Self-care advisor from Kagoshima publishes e-book ‘For Moms Who Actually Want to Withdraw’
Self-care advisor Momoe Tsubouchi and the cover of her e-book
A month has passed since Momoe Tsubouchi, a self-care advisor from Kagoshima, released an e-book on Amazon Kindle. The title is “To the Mom Who Actually Wanted to Withdraw: Three Solutions for the Mind and Body that Will Save You from Darkness, from a Self-Care Advisor Mom Who Wanted to Withdraw from the Society (Original title: 本当はひきこもりたいママへ 本当はひきこもりたかったセルフケアアドバイザーのママから贈る 暗やみから救ってくれる心と体への3つの解決策).”
The book went on sale on October 25. Tsubouchi worked for an airline for 15 years as an international cabin crew. As she was working in “a harsh environment,” she decided to study various natural therapies from around the world, oriental medicine, and self-care methods to maintain her health. As a seminar lecturer now, she advocates “self-maintenance methods that people can continue for the rest of their lives,” based on the three main components of mindfulness meditation, laughter yoga, and diet.
In April last year, she opened her office Balance in Soho Kagoshima, a support facility for business start-ups. She wrote the book to explain her self-maintenance methods, putting together three solutions, so that readers can easily understand her approach. She incorporated her own experiences of “in the dark”: one of her children had a disability, her mother had passed away, and she was going through a divorce.
When writing the book, Tsubouchi received advice from a friend who had experience in editing. She said, “I learned that there is a unique wording for e-books. I changed it to a colloquial style as if I were talking to someone. I also asked my friend to edit the endings and replace some text to make it easier to read.” Knowing that “the cover is the most important part of an e-book,” she held a competition for the cover design on a side-job matching website and chose one from 40 design proposals.
Soon after its release, the book ranked first in eight categories, including traditional medicine, oriental medicine, women’s studies, and lifestyle information, thanks in part to a marketing campaign. More than half of the purchasers were from outside the prefecture, and Tsubouchi says, “I received many comments from mothers who said they sympathized with the title.”
“I want not only mothers who are tired of their current roles but also men who have families to read this book. The amount of housework that Kagoshima mothers have to do is noteworthy. We can’t reduce the tasks that we have to deal with but if we can build up our mental and physical strengths, we can tackle them without difficulties. I hope this e-book will show them how they can handle things on their own,” she added.
The e-book price is 780 yen. Tsubouchi is planning to publish her second book focusing on brothers and sisters of children with disabilities at the end of the year.