Texas - Shawn Warner published his first novel at the age of 58. To spread the word about the release, he set up a stand in a grocery store. At some point, a TikTok user took notice and now, Warner's life has been changed forever!

TikToker Jerrad Swearenjin recorded a video of the Texas man in hopes of helping the aspiring writer. As it goes, the clip went viral, turning Shawn Warner into a bestselling author overnight after the clip was viewed more than 17.5 million times.

But first things first: Shawn Warner, an Army veteran, first worked as a child psychiatrist before he became a software engineer. At some point, he decided to roll the dice to fulfill his childhood dream of becoming a writer, the New York Post reports.

Although people advised him against it, saying "You can’t make a living out of doing that," the father of two wrote his first book. However, it didn't initially take off in terms of sales.

Over the Fourth of July holiday weekend, Warner was sitting in a chair behind a table at a Kroger in Texas touting his novel, Leigh Howard And The Ghosts Of Simmons-Pierce Manor, when two men took notice and approached him.

The TikTok user noticed Warner's "defeated" look, and decided to go back and talk to Warner before he left, per the video's on-screen text.

Small talk between Warner and Swearenjin soon turned into conversation, and Warner's facial expression changed to a broad smile as the strangers showed their interest in his book.

"It's about a young girl who teams up with a ghost of multiple personalities to solve the mystery of her parents' murder," the author said in the video. Swearenjin, the man behind the camera, told him he was doing a little "TikToking" and bought a book, which he had Warner sign.

After that, something incredible happened that the author probably didn't expect: the clip went viral, bringing him incredible success in book sales over the next few days.

Up until that point, he had also received only two reviews on Amazon for his work. Suddenly, he shot to the top of the Amazon book charts – and can now call himself a bestselling author.

Jerrad Swearenjin, who runs the channel @internetfamouslol on TikTok, said that the reason he filmed Warner in the first place was because he "imagined all the times I worked so hard and never got any recognition." He continued, "Here’s a fellow neighbor that’s just struggling and I just wanted to help him out."

Warner himself still can't believe the sudden fame that came from someone else's small, kind gesture, and is quite touched by it. His book remains at the top of Amazon.

The success prompted Warner to create his own TikTok account, where he thanked people who reached out and bought the book He already has more than 153,000 followers.