FAQs

1

How do I apply for a readalong?

Sign up to our newsletter, and every fortnight we’ll send you out a list of that month’s upcoming titles. You fill out a short google form, linked in our newsletter, selecting the two readalongs you’d like to be involved in, and we’ll let you know if you’ve been successful.

2

Why can I only select up to two readalongs per newsletter?

The answer to this one is mainly to keep our Tandem Fandom family growing! We want to ensure as many new faces are booking slots onto readalongs as possible, so with everyone having a limit of applying for two per newsletter, it gives everyone a nice chance!

3

Why haven’t I been placed on a readalong?

Since we began the readalong allocation process many moons ago, it feels like we’ve gone through every selection process possible. Now, we have a mixture of them all in play. We will change this up every six months or so to make sure we’re getting as many people involved as possible.

It’s always a fine balance between getting everyone on the readalongs that they want and getting the publisher everything they need from the full selection of participants.

If you haven’t landed a spot on a readalong in over three months, please do contact Wendy - our newsletter queen.

4

Can I get paid to be a part of the readalong?

Our readalongs are collective reading experiences and we encourage bookstagrammers to freely share their thoughts based on discussion points and creative challenges, so there's no payment involved. However, we do occasionally have paid partnership opportunities available beyond our readalongs.

5

Can I have the readalong cards for a past readalong?

Absolutely! Check out Readlongs for our recent titles or explore the full Archive of our previous Readalongs, including question cards. Can’t find what you’re looking for? Get in touch with a member of the team and we’ll have a look for you.

6

Why do I need to send you insights at the end of a readalong?

This is how we report back to our clients, the publishers, on how well the campaign has done. This is the only thing we need in return from you after receiving one of our immersive readalong packages. Please always endeavour to send us the statistics back after a readalong in a timely manner. Failure to do so could put you at risk of not being placed on a readalong in the future.

7

Why didn’t I receive the newsletter?

If you didn’t manage to receive one of our newsletters, it could be due to several reasons. Firstly, please make sure to check your spam and junk folders - sometimes our newsletters end up here if it’s been misidentified as spam. Make sure to specify that it’s not spam so that all future emails from us will go straight to your inbox! 

Other times, it could be because of an accidental unsubscribe, a typo in your sign up form, or your inbox may have rejected our email due to undetermined reasons.If you didn’t manage to find our newsletter in your spam and junk folder, shoot an email to Wendy and she’ll look into the issue for you!

8

How do readalongs work?

In a nutshell, publishers approach us to support them celebrating particular books, then we let you know (via the newsletter) what readalongs we’ve got coming up. You, as a team of participants, all read the books at the same time, posting on Instagram as you go, and then we send a wrap up request when the readalong is over for statistics to give back to the publisher.

9

Do I need a certain amount of followers?

Nope! As Tandem Collective is a small business itself, we’re passionate about standing up for the little guy. That’s why we ensure to include at least five accounts with less than 1,000 followers on every readalong we do.

10

I have more followers on Twitter/ YouTube than Instagram, can I post there instead?

Our activations only run on Instagram, so we’ll only be looking for content posted on Instagram. Please do feel free to shout about your content / book elsewhere but we’ll only be looking at any content posted on your feed, stories, lives or reels.

11

What if I don’t like the book?

We value any and all feedback. We also understand that not everyone will connect with every book. We would like to hear from you, whatever your thoughts. If you do decide to ‘DNF’ or not finish a readalong book, please do let us know otherwise we’ll be hounding you for statistics. If you’re really sure you’re not going to read the book, please feel free to gift it to a friend or family member. As a reminder, you cannot sell proofs - it is illegal - and we’d rather you didn’t resell our books, as they were intended as a gift.

12

Do you work with TikTokers?

Yes, we work with content creators on TikTok on a variety of activities ranging from ambassador schemes to paid partnerships.

1

How much does everything cost?

Please contact us to request our rate card. We can work with all budgets, big and small, and we’re always willing to discuss.

2

Are your rates fixed?

We will always aim to find something to fit your budget. We’ve created wonderful campaigns on shoestring budgets and we’ve also embraced new and innovative ways of celebrating books online with a larger budget - there’s always wiggle room. Drop us an email if you’d like to have a chat!

3

What are “extras”?

We always try to make every readalong we work on entirely bespoke, and with that in mind, we can add certain extra elements to your package if the book / audience is right.

• Zoom Events (public, or participants only)

• IGTV / IG Live Sessions

• Featuring on All Back to Ours or Takeover Thursdays

• Various author engagements

4

I’m an author, can I work directly with you?

We primarily work with authors through their publishers / publicists, but do email us for more information.

5

What is a readalong?

In a nutshell, a readalong is a week-long activity on Instagram that gathers bookstagrammers to celebrate a book, a series, or a selection of titles from a publisher. We’ll require books and certain sign offs from you, as the publisher, and we do all the rest. This includes planning, production, and execution.

We also host audiobook-based listenalongs, cookalongs for cookery books, work-outalongs for some of our fitness titles and we’ve recently dipped our toes into watchalongs, celebrating various film releases.

6

How long does a readalong take to implement?

We like to work as efficiently as possible, so ideally we like to have 3 months lead time. However, we are also very good at turning campaigns around fast. So if you have a last minute drop-in to your publishing schedule, do still contact us.

7

We have projects other than readalongs that we’d like your help with to implement and execute, would you be open to discussions about these?

Yes, absolutely! Tandem is an ever expanding and evolving vessel and we are always open to harnessing our creativity to implement new ideas and projects. We’d love to hear from you with your thoughts!