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Stone Maidens, the first and only published novel by Vermont dad Lloyd Devereux Richards, was not making sales. In fact, book sales struggled for over a decade until recently when his daughter started to use TikTok to promote it. According to Insider, Marguerite Richards, posted a video on TikTok promoting the book and within a very short period of time, the book had made it to the top of the Amazon bestseller list.
From anonymity to stardom
The book is a mystery thriller that took Richards, a busy working dad at the time, around 14 years to write, Today reports. It was originally published in 2012, but had almost no sales at all over the past decade. So until recently, he was basically anonymous.
Marguerite Richards posted the TikTok video on February 8 2023. In it, she described what her 74-year-old dad went through to write the book. According to Today, she was hoping to draw some attention to the book. But never in her wildest dreams would she have imagined how much attention it would actually get. According to Now This News, when Marguerite woke up the morning after posting her video and saw how many views it had, she couldn't hold back her tears. The video now has nearly 50 million views and counting.
Writers should never quit
Richards told BBC News that this experience taught him writers should never quit. In another TikTok video he tells his viewers and supporters that he feels blessed.
Other authors and publishers have recently been using TikTok to promote their work as well. According to the marketing platform Hootsuite, this trend is known as BookTok and it is taking the app by storm. It is actually becoming an important tool for the book market, they explain. And according to the New York Times, the tag #BookTok has helped authors sell a whopping 20 million printed books in 2021 and in 2022 sales increased by 50 percent. TikTok has become, as the New York Times labeled it, a Best-Seller Machine.
Stone Maidens, Richard’s now famous novel, is a whodunit about an FBI anthropologist that tracks and tries to find a serial killer. According to Global News, the bestseller may have been inspired by Richard’s career as a lawyer. According to his Amazon author page, Richards is currently working on a sequel to his novel.
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