A Daughter Sent Her Dad’s Book to the #1 Spot on Amazon Thanks to a Viral TikTok

After Marguerite Richards set up a TikTok account dedicated to her 74-year-old father, his book became Amazon's top-selling serial killer thriller and has even achieved the top spot for all books sold on Amazon.

For years, Marguerite Richards watched her dad struggle to sell his debut 2012 novel,
Stone Maidens,” so she decided to turn to TikTok for help.

She created a simple 17-second video showcasing her dad, Lloyd Richards, and it blew up. When Marguerite woke up the morning after posting it and saw the video’s views, she started crying. It now has nearly 50 million views and has changed her dad’s life.

“My dad spent 14 years writing this book — he was working full-time, and he had 3 kids,” she told NowThis. “So he would grab little pockets of time in the morning, early and late. And he also had to learn how to write. He didn't know anything about forensics and stuff, so he had to teach himself.”

“Stone Maidens,” which is described as a “heart-pounding story” of one FBI agent’s attempts to unmask a serial killer, initially had some sales through Kindle, according to Marguerite. But they quickly petered out, and over the past 11 years, they saw basically no sales.

“But he was never negative about his book not selling, and it always impressed me,” she said. “He never really even talked about the fact that no one was reading it, and he continued to write. He's written 2 books since then, including the sequel.”

Lloyd finished the sequel last summer, but for Marguerite, that accomplishment only made it harder to grapple with the reality that basically no one had bought “Stone Maidens” in the first place.

However, after Marguerite set up the TikTok account dedicated to her 74-year-old father, his book became Amazon's top-selling serial killer thriller and has even achieved the top spot for all books sold on Amazon.

People now want a sequel, and they’re in luck. Publishers are reaching out to Lloyd to get one published quickly. “It's a dream for my dad,” she said. “He's kind of getting fought over.”

Marguerite says the TikTok account has allowed her father and his work to reach a much younger demographic than they imagined. “They're saying this is the first book they've bought for pleasure,” she said. “Outside of school, they haven't read in years. Or people are reading who don't read. So many people said, ‘I don't read books, but I'm buying this.’ But then, they're sitting down and reading it in a day or a weekend. And to my dad and I that is the biggest, incredible thing that has come from this.”