From The New York Times:
When Allen Levi, a musician who had written scores of songs over his career, began writing his first novel, his plan was to finish it and stick it in a drawer. “I just wanted to see if I had the muscle to write a piece of long fiction,” he said. The resulting book, “Theo of Golden,” is about an older man who moves to a city in Georgia and begins buying 92 pencil portraits off a coffee shop wall to return them to their subjects and “rightful owners.” After a group of Levi’s friends read the novel and encouraged him not to let the manuscript molder, he self-published it through Amazon in the fall of 2023.
“Theo of Golden” became a word-of-mouth smash hit. It sold 3,000 copies in 2023, then 24,000 in 2024. This year, sales exploded, prompting Atria to buy rights to the book. It has sold more than 300,000 copies this year. The book opens with a dedication to Levi’s friend Cubby Culbertson: “As a token of gratitude for our long friendship and a reminder, just between us, that you promised to buy a hundred copies of the book if I dedicated it to you. Will that be cash or charge?”
More here.
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