TikTok helped make Lloyd Devereux Richards, a full-time attorney, into a bestseller.
Richards is also a father of three children and spent the last 14 years of pursuing his dream of writing a book. Once he wrote his book, he waited for the next 11 years for it to take it. It needed a little push and his daughter was the one that provided the push.
In a 17-second TikTok video, his daughter mentions that her father’s book hasn’t sold well. She asks for the book to get some sales and the internet delivered. The video received over 40 million views and pushed her father’s book to the top of the Amazon’s Serial Killer Thrillers list.
Titled Stone Maidens, the book shot to the top of the charts because of the support it received. The book follows an FBI forensic anthropologist who is investigating a serial killer that strangles women and dumps their bodies in southern Indiana.
In the past couple of years, TikTok has helped hundreds of books and authors see an increase in sales. More commonly known as BookTok, readers share their favorite books and author and that has helped lesser-known artists top the charts. In 2021, over 20 million printed books were sold because of BookTok according to the New York Times.
TikTok helped propel the book to the number one spot but Richards doesn’t even know what TikTok is. His daughter showed him the comment section of the video which made him cry. The daughter also cried while thanking fans for purchasing the book.
The success of the book was celebrated with milkshakes. In a video posted following the sales of the novel, the family went out to grab some milkshakes.
“These last couple of days… I can’t understand it,” Richards says in the video. “I feel so blessed.”
After the success of his novel, Richards decided to work on a sequel. Hopefully, this novel doesn’t take 14 years to top Amazon’s best seller list.
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