Daughter’s viral TikTok helps her dad’s book become a first-time bestseller

Thanks to a viral TikTok video posted by his daughter, author Lloyd Devereux Richards’ book just became a bestseller more than a decade after it was first published.

Richards spent 14 years working on his passion project, a thriller novel, while also keeping up with the demands of his corporate job and raising three kids. When he published his first book, “Stone Maidens,” in 2012 he only received modest sales. Now, one viral video has changed all of that.

The video starts with the text, “My dad spent 14 years writing a book,” and shows snippets of Richards hard at work in his home office.

“He worked full time and his kids came first,” the text continues, “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.”

Richards’ daughter posted this tribute to her father on February 8 and then let the internet and #booktok do its thing. In just a few days, sales skyrocketed on Amazon for his book, boosting the fictional novel to the No.1 seller spot last week. Clearly the power of TikTok is not to underestimated.

Richards is also in talks to write a second book and possibly close a Hollywood movie deal, according to USA Today.

The video has been seen over 48 million times. The #booktok community of TikTok truly showed up for one their own.

“The Internet, when used right, can work wonders! 🥹 Can’t wait for my copy to arrive and start binge-reading. ❤”

“Waiting for it to restock and I’m buying. ❤️”

“This is the reason I love tik tok 🥹”

“Just ordered the book from Norway, can’t wait to read it!”

“on tonight’s episode of Tik Tok made me buy it 😂 shows it’ll be here Sunday!”

Richards’ daughter has since posted a few follow-up videos where she filmed her dad’s emotional reaction when she told him about the original video and his subsequent book sales.

Richards’ daughter also posted that you can catch the sweet father and daughter duo on the TODAY show on February 24. For all of her father’s newfound fans, she’s been giving updates on their shared TikTok account, @stonemaidens, where she’s reported that 65,000 copies of his book have been sold in the past 2 weeks alone!