The Mystery Readalong: Keeping Readers Guessing
Looking for the ideal campaign to bring a new audience to an established author?
Or potentially an activation in which we lift the veil on author’s that a reader had previously labeled as ‘not for me’?
Well, as always, we’ve got you covered.
Allow us to introduce The Mystery Readalong, which we’ve currently run in three formats:
A mystery readalong is announced, with nothing but a blurb of a book. Occasionally we’d share an exclusive chapter extract in a bespoke newsletter. We would encourage readers to sign up based solely on their intrigue from the blurb / extract. We would then gather readers into a DM group for some last minute guessing games.
When we’re ready to start the readalong, we mail out the books and that’s when the author is revealed.A mystery readalong is announced with no blurb, no extract, nothing. We only share three clues about an author, which could be as broad as ‘this author lives and writes out of the US’, ‘this author has previously been a lawyer, in a former life’, ‘this author also has a penchant for basketball’. We reveal the genre, and any content warnings, and then we would encourage readers to sign up based solely on their intrigue.
We would then gather readers into a DM group for some last minute guessing games.
When we’re ready to start the readalong, we mail out the books and that’s when the author is revealed.A mystery readalong is announced with no blurb, no extract, nothing.
We reveal the genre, and any content warnings, and then we would encourage readers to sign up based solely on their intrigue.
We would then gather readers into a DM group for some last minute guessing games.
The main difference on this option is that we’d also then send out blind proofs for the readers. These proofs, without the author's name on, would be read during a readalong with questions and discussion points - it’s only after the readalong, during an IG live that we would reveal the name of the author to the readers.
We have previously run versions of the above with both Karin Slaughter (False Witness) and John Grisham (A Time For Mercy) where clients were looking to attract a new, younger audience to both legacy authors, and also Daniel Kalla (Fit To Die) where clients were looking simply to approach beyond his current readership.
The overall feedback from participants on mystery campaigns is that they have really enjoyed the books - several said they would have never chosen to read a book by their respective authors.
“Thanks again for having me on this readalong. It was my first Grisham but definitely won't be my last!” - @bookswithmolly
“I last read a John Grisham about 20 years ago and I wonder if I would have bought this, had I not been sent it. I am so glad I read it. One of the best books I’ve read for yonks!” - @books_are_my_therapy_
“What a reveal! I’m about to go and add all of her [Karin Slaughter] books to my to-buy list!” - @13rebecca13
“Absolutely LOVE this idea!” - @turn.up.for.the.books
“What an epic idea this is!” - @gimmebooksjoanna
“Such an amazing concept.” - @lauralittlelibrary
