Atria sends influencer on ‘ultimate world cruise’

In the US, Atria Books has explained its decision to sponsor non-reader Marc Sebastian to travel the Antarctica leg of an ‘ultimate world cruise’, after some BookTok users criticised the move, reports Publishers Weekly.

Atria paid for Sebastian, a model and influencer, to travel for 18 nights on the cruise ship—which is hosting ‘a bevy of influencers and other TikTok personalities’ posting their experience of the nine-month cruise. Sebastian told followers the publisher ‘sent me here with eight different titles, and you get to choose my adventure’.

Some BookTok users criticised the decision to send a non-reader on the trip. However, Atria told PW: ‘We hope seeing Marc, who is not normally a reader, pick up a book in real time will inspire others to start reading too.’

PW reported that Circana BookScan sales for The Last One (Will Dean, Atria), the book Sebastian said he would be reading, had increased by just 54 copies in the week after Sebastian’s announcement. According to TikTok, the #atriabooks hashtag received 98,000 global views between 12 December and 15 January, and #thelastone has received 4.8 million views since the cruise ship left port.

Category: International news