After 14 Years of Writing and Practically No Sales, a Daughter's Viral TikTok Made Her Dad's Book a No.1 Amazon Bestseller The author didn't even know what TikTok was — until his story went viral.
By Sam Silverman •
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
One daughter has made her father's dreams come true with a helping hand from TikTok.
Author Lloyd Devereux Richards' daughter, who has chosen to remain anonymous, took to TikTok to help boost sales of her father's thriller book Stone Maidens about a serial killer in Chicago. According to the daughter, Richards spent 14 years writing the novel but had nearly no sales in 11 years since he published the book in 2012.
@stonemaidens It's a beautifully written thriller on Amazon #stonemaidens #booktok #authorsoftiktok #thrillerbooks #books ♬ original sound - e
Taking matters into her own hands, the daughter created the TikTok account @stonemaidens and posted a clip of her dad working in his office, unbeknownst to Ricards, telling viewers that he always put family before his writing career, and after working on his book for 14 years, he was still content despite the book's poor sales.
In the clip, she wrote, "I'd love for him to get some sales. He doesn't even know what TikTok is" with the hashtag #booktok, which The New York Times reports helped authors sell 20 million print books in 2021.
The video has since reached 42.2 million views and Stone Maiden was boosted to No. 1 on Amazon's Best Thrillers list.
@stonemaidens you all are amazing! Life can be hard and then it can be wonderful suddenly (still crying) #stonemaidens ♬ original sound - lloyd
The daughter shared the exciting news with her father in a follow-up video, showing his emotional reaction to the increased sales and positive feedback on his book.
Visibly emotional by the outpour of support, the dad can be seen wiping his tears adding, "I'm ready for a nap."
