A 58-year-old debut author has landed on Amazon's bestseller list after a video of him at a quiet book signing went viral on TikTok. The author in question is called Shawn Warner, he is 58 years old and his rise to fame occurred after a book signing in a hypermarket.
The tiktoker Jerrad Swearenjin saw Warner at a hypermarket book signing and decided to chat with him. "He seemed super down when I first walked past him. After I left the store I went back to him," Swearenjin explains in the video.
The young tiktoker shared a video on social networks of his talk with Warner. "I just wanted to show kindness to a stranger. I imagined all the times I worked very hard and never got any recognition," the tiktoker explained.
In the video you can see how Swearenjin and a friend approach Warner and ask him about his book; Warner tells them that the novel is about a "girl who teams up with a ghost with multiple personalities to solve the murder mystery of her parents."
The writer naturally explains his book to the tiktoker, and that seems to be the key to the success of the video, which has achieved 18 million views.
The video in question was posted to TikTok on Sunday and was filled with supportive comments and users pledging to buy the book. On Monday, Warner tweeted that the novel became Amazon's No. 1 bestseller, and soon after was No. 1 across all book genres.
"It was totally unexpected. I'm in a state of shock... I don't even know what to say right now," Warner said after becoming a bestseller.
