The video is just 16 seconds long, and simple. You see a Vermont author’s modest writing habits, complete with sneakers and suspenders.
With this TikTok post, Lloyd Devereux Richards’ daughter, Marguerite, hoped to drum up a few sales for his debut novel, which came out in 2012.
It’s been viewed 42 million times and counting. And the novel, Stone Maidens, rocketed to the number-one spot on Amazon as of Tuesday, Feb. 15. Not just the #1-selling thriller — the number-one selling book on all of Amazon.
“I’m just bowled over by it. I’m overwhelmed. I wasn’t expecting anything like this,” Lloyd Devereux Richards said, speaking with Vermont Edition host Connor Cyrus about his sudden viral fame this week.
Richards, who lives in Montpelier, wrote the novel over the course of 14 years on nights and weekends — first working with a local professor to learn the craft, and then writing and rewriting. All of that was while raising kids and working full-time as a lawyer at National Life Group.
Stone Maidens, a thriller, is set in southern Indiana, where Richards went to law school and initially worked as a lawyer. It centers on an investigation led by a Chicago-based FBI forensic anthropologist and a local sheriff.
But his work wasn’t done when the book was written, or even when he eventually found an agent and a publisher. “I didn’t know how hard it would be to market the book,” Richards said. Sales were slow.
“There’s a lot of suffering” in writing, Richards told Vermont Edition. “On the other hand, if it’s a passion like it is with me, you don’t give up, you keep at it. And you just have to believe in yourself and try harder and work on it more.”
Marguerite Richards had watched as the book her father had labored over for 14 years wasn’t going anywhere. “It broke my heart a little,” she told Vermont Edition. She decided to post on TikTok, thinking that highlighting her dad’s perseverance would convince a few people to read “Stone Maidens.”
The video reached 42 million views and counting. People ordered the book from all over the world, sending it to the No. 1 spot on Amazon.
Richards is overwhelmed by the sudden tremendous response from his new internet fans.
“I thought I wrote a good book. But there’s a lot of people out there that write well and write good books. … I can’t fathom it exactly. I don’t feel I’m entitled to something like this,” Richards said on Vermont Edition. “It’s profound, you know, the impact these videos had on people. It’s not that I’m ungrateful, just the opposite. I’m just overwhelmed.”
Marguerite Richards attributes the video’s success to its authenticity. People connect with her father’s authenticity and humility, she said. But the response to the book is genuine, she said, because now people are reading the book and coming back to TikTok to say so.
“They actually love the book,” she said. “He is so deserving of this as a human, a father, a writer. And I hope this helps him realize that and other people out there struggling with that same impostor syndrome.”
“Thank you, honey,” Lloyd Devereux Richards replied, his voice breaking.
After a week of many encouraging comments and calls and little sleep, Richards is still trying to grasp the sudden turn of events.
He finished a sequel to Stone Maidens last summer, using the same characters. His agent is in the process of submitting it to publishers.
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