The Self-Publishing Outlier That Is Theo of Golden

I haven’t yet read Theo of Golden, but it’s everywhere: in stores, on social media, starring in a recent Oprah podcast. It’s really hard to miss at this point. Of course I bought a copy. One of my best friends highly recommended it.

And that is what this blog post is about.

Word of mouth is the invaluable, literally priceless best marketing tool in the book world. You can’t buy it with money. The only way you can get it is by writing a book readers love and want to share with the people they know.

Someone you know loves the book, tells you to read it, and you love it too, so you tell two friends and so on and so on (I remember a shampoo commercial from my youth that used the same concept).

What is the book about?
It’s described as a heartwarming story about an elderly, mysterious stranger who arrives in a small Southern town and transforms the lives of its residents through acts of kindness and connection (a good subject for troubling times).
 
Here are some facts about the author, Allen Levi:
He’s a first-time author who self-published in 2023 without a publicity campaign.
His niece handled marketing.
The book sold an impressive three thousand copies in the first few months.
The book landed on The New York Times bestseller list in 2025 and the No. 1 position in 2026.
The author ended up with a publishing deal at Atria Books, Simon & Schuster.

What a story! (Both the novel's story and the book’s rise to glory.)

What kind of marketing did Levi’s niece do?
Her name is Aron Ritchie, and she says they didn't use paid marketing. They relied on grassroots networking to get the word out about the book. Neither she nor Levi had any experience with self-publishing or marketing. Ritchie helped connect with local and national book clubs.
 

Wow, wow, wow!

This is the American writer’s dream. To have written a book that so many people love so much that it virtually sells itself? It sounds simple, and yet we all know it’s one of the hardest things in the world to do.

Levi joins a sparkling group of self-publishers who have taken the path to big success. Here are the others that I know:

Travis Baldree
Andy Weir
Minka Kent
E.L. James
Rupi Kaur
Amanda Hocking
Christopher Paolini
Karen McQuestion
 
The list doesn’t end there, I’m sure. These are just the ones I thought of first.

Now that we have seen word of mouth in action, what can we do to harness its energy?

Write good books.

That’s it. That’s all we can do. Whether that means putting more into honing our craft or hiring better editors is up to us and the universe. But it gives me a happy little glow to think that someone was able to do it. To come from complete obscurity and rise up to that bestseller list. Just knowing it has been done is very satisfying.

And reassuring.

Because if it's been done before, we know that one day it will be done again.
 
Keep writing!