A father's novel has become the top-selling book on Amazon after his daughter featured it in a viral TikTok video.
Author Lloyd Devereux Richards' book, Stone Maidens, was published in 2012 by Thomas & Mercer - an Amazon imprint that publishes mysteries, thrillers, and true crime.
The book was reportedly inspired by crime events that happened in the mid-1970s while the 74-year-old from Vermont attended law school at Indiana University, as noted by The Washington Post.
But the road to publishing success was a difficult one for the father-of-three until his daughter, Marguerite Richards, came up with an idea to get his book the attention it deserved.
Watch the heartwarming TikTok below:In the 16-second video filmed and shared by Richards's daughter - whose handle is the name of the book - she wrote that her father "spent 14 years writing a book," while he is seen sitting in the background at his desk.
She revealed that he "worked full time and his kids came first" while he was working on the novel and sweetly added: "I'd love for him to get some sales. He doesn’t even know what TikTok is."
Viewers of the clip were so moved to hear of the efforts Richards had put into his passion project - as well as being slightly heartbroken that it didn't do well in sales. So of course, the internet did what the internet does best and set about changing that.
The clip was first posted on February 8 and one week later, it has amassed a staggering 43.9 million views and 9.7 million likes. Word spread about the book so much that by February 14, Stone Maidens had become the top-selling book on Amazon.
In a follow-up video that has 1.4 million likes, Richards’s daughter showed her father the original clip and they both became emotional after he saw its impact on the platform.
"Oh my gosh," he said in the heartwarming clip, to which his daughter responded: "I love you, dad!"
After the two hugged each other, Richards sweetly told his daughter, "Thank you."
According to the book's synopsis, Stone Maidens is a crime novel that follows a chief forensic anthropologist at the FBI as she tries to solve a serial murder case.
Speaking to the outlet, the 40-year-old daughter revealed that she decided to start a social media account on her father's behalf to promote his novel.
"It was such a great book, and I knew how important it was to him," she said, adding: "I thought maybe it's just because nobody knows about the book."
The last several days have been a dream for Richards. He reflected on his sudden success earlier this week in another TikTok clip shared by his daughter.
"These last couple of days, I can't understand it," he said, while the duo enjoyed milkshakes. "I feel blessed, you know?"
Richard told The Washington Post that he owes his current triumph to his daughter, saying: "If I had said, 'I’m tired, I want to go to bed, maybe some other time,' we wouldn’t be talking."
"I’m very grateful, but that’s the only thing that’s changed in the last 11 years is this couple of videos she put on TikTok," he added.
The author also announced that he is not done writing and that he has been working on a sequel for nearly five years.
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