It was Shawn Warner’s life-long dream to be a published author, and now, after a chance encounter with a TikToker, he became the number-one, best-selling author on Amazon.

The 58-year-old army veteran was promoting his young adult fantasy novel at a Texas grocery store, the New York Post reported. Warner had copies of his book Leigh Howard and the Ghosts of Simmons-Pierce Manor displayed on a folding table in front of a clothing rack.

Jerrad Swearenjin and his friend approached Warner and began a conversation while filming.

Warner explained to the pair that the book “is about a teenage girl who teams up with a ghost of multiple personalities to solve the mystery of her parents’ murder.” 

Swearenjin picked up two copies of the book and asked Warner to sign a book as a giveaway to one of his TikTok followers. 

Later, Swearejin posted the encounter to his TikTok account “internetfamouslol” with the description: “This new author seemed super defeated when I first walked past him. So before I left the store, I decided to go back.”

The video garnered 17.5 million views and 3.1 million likes. Prior to its upload, Warner’s book, published in November 2022, only had two reviews on Amazon but now is a best seller on the site.

In response to the outpouring of love, Warner created his own TikTok account to thank people for their support. 

“Hi, I want to thank everyone for the love and the kindness on the video that Red posted, it was totally unexpected,” Warner said. “I’m in shock. I don’t even know what to say about it at the moment, I’m trying to wrap my head around it.”

Warner spent his professional career working as a pediatric mental health worker and then a software engineer, but his heart was always set on writing, according to his website.

“At every stage of my life, people have complimented me on my writing,” Warner wrote. “Those kind words were always followed up with, ‘…but you can’t make a living out of doing that,’ and I was dumb enough to listen. I was a kid! What did I know?”

And years later, Warner is finally living out his dream.