Photo: Garret Lee.
Theo of Golden author Allen Levi. He was close to 70 when he self-published his breakout novel.
Knowing how unusual it is to become a hit novelist with no publicity or marketing plan, I’m fascinated to read about breakout Georgia author Allen Levi. Word got out by networking and word of mouth, especially among Southern Christians. It also fascinates me that the author of Theo of Golden, whose book apparently has a streak of sudden violence, was an admirer of edgy Catholic novelist Flannery O’Connor.
Sophia Nguyen has the story at the Washington Post.
“This past spring, word started to percolate in the publishing industry about ‘the white book’ — a self-published novel with a stark, bright cover that was fast becoming one of the biggest sellers of the year. No one knew exactly how. Theo of Golden had limited distribution, and virtually no publicity or marketing campaign. Its author, Allen Levi, lived alone on 1,600 acres of family land — mostly pine trees — in Georgia, where he kept honeybees and a blog, and posted homespun music videos. That was about the extent of his social media footprint. …
“The novel tells the story of an elderly stranger, Theo, who shows up one day in the small city of Golden. Struck by the pencil portraits displayed in a local coffee shop, he buys the whole lot, aiming to give all 92 of them to their subjects. In doing so, he quietly changes his newfound community. Though Levi, in conversation, is more likely to bring up Wendell Berry or David Brooks, his narrative … has a soft-lit, allegorical quality, designed to inspire awe at life’s forking paths. And yet, he also put in a late-breaking plot turn so brutal, anguished readers grill him about it at all public appearances.
” ‘I didn’t want someone to misinterpret the story as something that’s naive or purely sentimental,’ Levi said, when we spoke over Zoom this month.
“The author’s own path has taken a few twists. He practiced law in Columbus, Georgia, for 13 years, went abroad to the University of Edinburgh to study Scottish fiction and then became a full-time singer-songwriter, performing at corporate events and for Young Life, a Christian youth organization. … Around 2010, tiring of life on the road, he ramped down his tour schedule to spend more time with his sick brother and aging father, a forester. … Then one morning, he was waiting in line at his usual cafe, taking in the portraits on display, and thought: Wouldn’t it be fun if someone bought all of them?
“He purchased a handful, and ‘over the course of the next few days and weeks, I would look at them and imagine what stories they might be trying to tell me,’ Levi said. These eventually inspired the characters of Kendrick, a custodian at the nearby university; Simone, a cello student; and Ellen, an unhoused woman who often bicycles around the public square. Gradually, Theo’s encounters spark deep friendships and shed light on his tragic past — including his reasons for coming to Golden. …
“Levi had no plan to publish the manuscript; finishing it felt like accomplishment enough. Then his college buddies, a tight-knit group of six who reunited annually to reminisce and pray together, talked him into sharing the draft. …
“Levi enlisted the help of his niece Aron Ritchie. … She took a low-fi approach to publicity. She compiled a spreadsheet of Levi’s sprawling network from the various chapters of his life — childhood, college, music, his volunteer work reading to elementary-schoolers and working at a foster home — asking contacts to spread the word. At night, after putting her kids to bed, she posted to Facebook groups from her phone, trying to reach book clubs across the country. … If they were within driving distance, Levi drove to visit in person, meeting with 10 or 20 people at a time. Every few weeks, she prepped him a call sheet titled ‘Good souls to connect with’: readers who had emailed Levi touching thank-you notes, or who wanted to teach the book in a course, or who shared it with their cancer support group.
“Theo of Golden sold a respectable 3,000 copies by the end of 2023. In 2024: 25,000. Ritchie predicted that sales would drop in early 2025 … but instead, they remained steady. The spring brought a surge whose cause she still can’t pinpoint, and suddenly they were selling a thousand copies a day. ‘We’ll never know, this side of heaven, how all this connected,’ she said. …
“The book’s initial readership has been concentrated in the South and largely came from Facebook, ‘which is an older demographic,’ noted Kate Nintzel, editorial director at Atria Books, the Simon & Schuster imprint that acquired Theo in October. ‘And I think that was important to the discovery and to the way the book reads and the way it connects.’
“Levi’s journey to publication ‘has a purity to it,’ said Atria Books editor Sean deLone, who described the pitching process for Theo as highly competitive. … The book’s message — of outreach to strangers, of small acts of generosity, of chance encounters unaided (and unhindered) by technology — turned audiences into evangelists.”
More at the Post, here.
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