A father in the US has seen his book rise to number one on the Amazon bestseller list a decade after it came out, all thanks to his daughter making a TikTok.
Lloyd Devereux Richards began writing a crime thriller called ‘Stone Maidens’ all the way back in 1998 and didn’t finish it until 2009. According to the Washington Post, he was rejected by over 80 publishers until finally accepted by Thomas & Mercer in 2011
When it was finally published and released in 2012 sales “didn’t meet the expectations” of the publishing agency, ranking 1,452nd on Amazon’s mystery, thriller and suspense novel lists.
A decade after its disappointing debut, Lloyd’s daughter Marguerite asked her father if she could make a TikTok video of him to promote the book. Lloyd was hesitant at first, having never heard of the app, but Marguerite insisted and he finally let her.
She filmed her dad working in his attic along with a message: “My dad spent 14 years writing a book. He worked full time and his kids came first, but he made time for the book. He’s so happy even though sales aren’t great. I’d love for him to get some sales.”
And it worked. A few days after the TikTok came out, the book was number one for ALL novels on Amazon (even ahead of Prince Harry’s ‘Spare’. Almost ten million people have liked the video and 44 million people have viewed it.
Marguerite has always loved the book and thought the only reason it wasn’t successful is no one knew it existed, which is why she made the TikTok.
“It was such a great book, and I knew how important it was to him,” she said. “He never was like, ‘Ah, nobody cares.’ He just always stayed positive. I thought maybe it’s just because nobody knows about the book.”
