A debut author struggling with sales became Amazon’s No 1 bestseller after a video of the writer at a quiet book signing went viral on TikTok. TikToker Jerrad “Red” Swearenjin, who filmed the interaction, said he approached Shawn Warner because the writer looked “super defeated”. Warner was sitting at a table in a Kroger store in Fort Worth, Texas, behind piled copies of his Young Adult murder mystery, Leigh Howard and the Ghosts of Simmons-Pierce Manor.

Swearenjin and his friend started asking him about his novel and why he decided to become an author. Swearenjin can be heard asking Warner to sign a second copy to be given to a TikTok user, adding that he will try to get the writer “a little bit of love” on the social media app. The video, which has now been viewed over 18 million times, shows Warner explaining that the book is “about a teenage girl who teams up with a ghost with multiple personalities to solve the mystery of her parents’ murder.”

The video was posted to TikTok and within 34 hours was flooded with supportive comments and users vowing to buy the book. Warner has worked as an infantry paratrooper, a pediatric therapist and in computer science before becoming an author. “At every stage of my life, people have complimented me on my writing,” he states on his website, but those same people said “you can’t make a living” being an author. “I was dumb enough to listen,” he adds. “So here I am, living out my childhood dream.”

Warner tweeted that the novel became No 1 in Amazon Young Adult sales, and soon after it was No 1 across all book genres. “When Red came up and talked to me, I was just so eager to talk to anybody at that point because there was a lull in my sales,” said Warner in a video response to the book’s success. “What’s happened has been beyond my imagination. I’m so grateful,” the author added in a caption.