Daughter Makes Dad’s Slow-Selling Novel a Bestseller 11 Years After Its Release
A 40-year-old daughter was determined keep her father’s dream alive. Lloyd Devereux Richards became a bestselling author more than a decade after his thriller was released thanks to Marguerite’s genius plan. Here is a story to remind us that miracles can happen to anyone and sometimes they happen when we least expect them.
The 74-year-old father of 3 began writing his book Stone Maidens in the late 1990s and finally got to publish it in November 2012.
The book is a thriller which was reportedly inspired by a series of events that happened in the mid-1970s while Lloyd was attending university. Unfortunately, Stone Maidens did not gain much attention when it was released more than a decade ago.
But after all this time, Marguerite Richards, Lloyd’s daughter still very much believed in her dad’s work and was set on making it a success. This is how she took the initiative to start a TikTok account on behalf of her father in order to promote his novel.
She explained, ’’It was such a great book, and I knew how important it was to him. I thought maybe it’s just because nobody knows about the book.’’
Marguerite’s debut TikTok video has garnered over 43 million views and more than 10 million likes. In it, she shared clips of her father working on the book at his desk. She shared the words: ’’My dad spent 14 years writing a book. He worked full time and his kids came first — but he made time for his book.’’
The loving daughter then added, ’’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.’’
Thanks to Marguerite’s video, copies of the book began to sell rapidly, causing it to skyrocket on Amazon’s bestsellers list and even reach #1 at one point.
Marguerite also posted a TikTok video of her father’s reaction to his newfound success. In the video, which has collected over 1.5 million likes, Lloyd is left speechless and in tears as he reads through the positive comments he has received online. His daughter says to him, ’’I love you dad!’’ and after the pair embrace, Lloyd tells her, ’’Thank you!’’
As a gesture of gratitude toward his supporters, Lloyd shared his top writing tip. He simply said: ’’Write, rewrite, and write it again, and never give up.’’
And it appears that Lloyds’s journey as a writer is not coming to an end yet. It was reported that he is in discussions regarding his second book, and several Hollywood studios are engaging in conversations with his literary agent about potential movie deals.
Lloyd is still in shock about his massive new success and can’t believe how his life has turned around in such an unexpected way. He admitted, ’’I’m pretty grateful but I don’t understand it really. I just didn’t understand the power of TikTok. I’m 74, I just am not aware of those things.’’