Arlington author Shawn Warner, TikTok user who made him viral reunite on ‘Today’ show (2024)

ARLINGTON — Life has been moving fast for Arlington author Shawn Warner.

In a two-week span, Warner has learned a lot about the power of social media and how it can create instant opportunities. Since appearing in a recent TikTok video, Warner is a sought-after personality. From his Arlington home, he’s fielding media requests, planning book signings and thinking about his next literary project.

“One minute, I’m chopping onions in the kitchen, the next minute, I’m talking to the Today show,” Warner, 58, said. “It’s a surreal kind of feeling.”

On Thursday, Warner and Jerrad “Red” Swearengin, a TikTok user from Fort Worth who evolved into a literary influencer, reunited in New York on NBC’s Today.

Swearengin, who goes by @internetfamouslol, posted a video of the conversation on TikTok while Warner was promoting his debut novel, Leigh Howard and the Ghosts of Simmons-Pierce Manor (Black Rose Writing) at a Kroger in north Fort Worth.

Swearengin tagged the 90-second video #BookTok and it wasn’t long before Warner’s paperback reached No. 1 on Amazon’s bestseller list. Since the TikTok video was posted July 2, it gained 19 million views.

As of Thursday afternoon, the book had slipped to No. 3 on Amazon. For the week ending July 9, it ranked No. 2 on Amazon in most-sold fiction.

“Red saw me sitting alone and came over and said hello and brightened up my day. And then it just brightened up my life,” Warner told hosts Hoda Kotb and Savannah Guthrie.

“Honestly,” Swearengin said. “I did such a small part. It really came down to the people. The people decided, and it took off.”

The young adult novel follows a teenage girl who teams with a ghost of multiple personalities to solve the mystery of her parents’ murder, Warner has said.

Despite the book’s slight drop, Warner still has momentum from the frenzied sales rush. Before his Today appearance, the former serviceman and software engineer admitted he’s not a fan of New York and feels more comfortable in a country setting.

“Just give me the mountains,” he said.

But he seemed overwhelmed by the response to his book prompted by a TikTok video.

The power of #BookTok

Since 2020, the simple seven-letter hashtag on the TikTok app has become a significant marketing force, helping drive some of the literary market’s biggest sellers.

TikTokkers use the tag to target an audience, then engage with fellow users of the app to recommend titles, create videos or make emotional pitches about what they’ve just read.

In Warner’s case, the video seemed to have touched an emotional nerve. Swearengin said on the video that Warner looked “super defeated” over the lack of attendees at his signing.

That changed with his video. Warner attributed the response to the “power of kindness.”

Warner is not the first Texas author benefiting from #BookTok. Thanks to TikTok, Sulphur Springs author Colleen Hoover has hovered at the top of all the bestselling lists, and four of her books, It Starts With Us (No. 18), It Ends With Us (No. 21), Verity (No. 23) and Too Late (No. 27) are also on the Amazon list. Her three-book boxed set is No. 11.

“I love that #BookTok hashtags can have such a positive impact on an author’s work, no matter how new or old it may be,” Hoover said. “I feel that #BookTok has been a way for readers to directly influence the market in an organic way.”

It’s about finding your audience

Warner’s book was published in November, but sales had hit a lull. Lizette Warner, Shawn’s wife, also an author, said his writer friends encouraged him to push the book again at more signings.

She’s also a leadership development coach. Her book, Power, Poise, and Presence, aims to provide strategic and tactical tools to advance careers.

Her husband’s success also took her by surprise, especially when she found out about the book’s popularity in its early viral moments.

“I guess my initial response was: ‘Why on Earth is someone buying your book?’” she said. “I set it up for people to buy his book online and to have an easy checkout. I wondered what was going on.”

Once the dust had settled this week, she had some takeaways from the experience.

One, she was proud of him and his work. “Like my mom said, ‘It’s about time.’ I’ve told him, ‘You’re going to go big. You write really good stuff.’”

Two, she said he found his audience. “It’s the same thing I tell my clients. Relate to your audience. He obviously has an audience. I told him ‘Your audience is on TikTok. They’re young kids if you want to reach them. That’s where they are.’ So, he got a TikTok account, even though social media isn’t necessarily his strong suit.”

Shawn Warner has since embraced TikTok, even appearing in a video on his new account to thank his supporters.

“In my opinion, I owe it to them to be there,” he said. “If they’re going to show this outpouring of kindness and generosity, they deserve to hear it from me in that medium.”

He plans to keep it local

As bookstores get more inventory from his publisher, Warner said he will stay local with signings in independent bookstores, including one at Pantego Books in nearby Dalworthington Gardens, and continue to participate in Kroger’s Authors in Grocery Stores program.

Warner’s Texas-based publisher is also working to release both hardcover and audiobook versions of the novel, he said.

In the meantime, he’s introspective about the viral experience. He realizes the moment could pass, but the father of two is happy with readers’ comments about how they’ve turned reading into a family experience.

“I don’t find my self-worth in those rankings. The rankings, they’re nice and they come and go,” he said.

Warner appreciates the readers’ responses to his debut book. In over 1,700 Amazon reviews, readers have given the book 4.9 out of 5 stars.

“People are reading and enjoying the book,” he said. “They’ll say, ‘This book made me read.’ Those are the meaningful things, reading together and talking about it. That kind of stuff means more to me.”