In June of 2024, we held a group read event for The Betrayal of Thomas True by A.J. West. The event ran for 5 consecutive days and included multiple grid and story posts. When we announced the event, over 200 readers applied to be a part of the campaign, and it was whittled down to 54 bloggers. Each reader was asked to commit to reading that book alone for the 5-day period, and to post a minimum of 3 stories per day, and 3 grid posts over the course of the week, including the final review.
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As well as daily story prompts, we set challenges.
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Thomas True is a very emotional story, so we played on the heartstrings and asked bloggers to make a post or a reel showing the items they need to get through! This worked really well because it was fun and creators had the opportunity to get creative.
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Dream movie cast We asked readers to cast the movie choosing actors to play the parts of the book's characters and presented it as a movie poster.
Interaction from the author AJ’s involvement was key to the success of this campaign. He was active throughout the whole campaign and in contact with the readers, including joining our group chat for a private Q&A.
At the end of the campaign we asked bloggers some questions about their experience on the group read.
Said that the campaign enhanced their reading experience
Said that the author involvement enhanced their reading experience.
Have purchased a copy of the book, despite having already read the ARC provided by the publisher.
Author testimonial
“Without InstaBookTours I would have sold far fewer copies of Thomas True and The Spirit Engineer and I would be struggling to engage with online influencers, but Victoria has given me so much more than that. She has created posters, videos, stickers and gifs, helped me create a merchandise line, offered feedback on the impact of my writing, trained me in social media engagement and enriched every part of my experience as an author. The positive impact she has had on my career is immeasurable.”
Due to the content-heavy nature of these campaigns, we ask that they are booked a minimum of 2 months in advance.