A daughter’s love and the power of TikTok together helped move mountains for one author whose book wasn’t selling well.
Author Lloyd Devereux Richards published his book “Stone Maidens” in 2012 after working on it for 14 years. The book wasn’t selling well at all, but then his daughter had an idea. She took the book to TikTok in a simple video and quickly received more than 43 million views that helped to get the book to the top of the Amazon Best Seller list.
One Simple TikTok Helped “Stone Maidens” Get The Attention It Needed For Sales
The TikTok video quickly, but efficiently, told the story about the book set to the song, “Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy),” written by John Lennon.
“My dad spent 14 years writing a book. He worked full time and his kids came first but made time for his book. He’s so happy even though sales aren’t great. I’d love for him to get some sales. He doesn’t even know what TikTok is.”
After posting the video on February 7, the book is now the No. one on Amazon’s bestseller list and sold out. While Lloyd, 74, isn’t really active on social media, his daughter knew that was the way to go when she wanted to tribute her dad’s hard work after finding out that the book’s sequel had very few prospects of finding a publisher.
“It’s surreal,” Lloyd told the New York Post. “I am not a social media person. I post pictures to Facebook and that’s it.” His daughter, Marguerite Richards, 40, took a short, simple video of her dad and posted it to TikTok in the hopes that a few people might buy the book. “I am so impressed with my dad and I hoped a few people would buy the book if they saw the person behind it,” she said. “I shot video of my father and he didn’t even know I was doing anything.”
The Video Quickly Went Viral!
What happened after posting the short clip to TikTok wasn’t exactly what Marguerite expected to happen, and so quickly. “I posted it and it had 200 views before I went to bed. The first comment was that the book sounds great,” she said.
The next morning when she checked, there were 700,000 views. “I thought something was wrong. And the book was selling on Amazon,” she continued. “Maybe because I presented the human behind the book. It’s a love letter to my dad. I wasn’t like, ‘Here’s my dad’s book; buy it.'”
It was a long, tough road for Lloyd, going from reading thrillers to writing one, to the point of getting it to the top of the bestsellers list on Amazon. The book was rejected by 85 agents before one took it, and he only got a $15,000 advance from the publisher. “It was difficult, but I was determined,” he said. “Before now, my income from the book, when I factored in the costs of learning to write, including the hiring of editors to help me, was a negative. This is a passion.”
After the first video went viral quickly, Marguerite shared some follow-up videos that also went viral quickly.
Many people left comments about the book currently being sold out and the amazing power of TikTok. “It’s currently unavailable and number one on Amazon !!!! Congrats to him 🥺,” one person wrote. “#1 spot best seller and sold out within 24 hours . I love this community,” added another.
Another follower wrote, “Moments like this are why I stay on this app. The love & generosity from people is astounding. There is definitely more good than evil.🥰”
