We released 1,000 free e-books available at selfdestructingbook.com. There, users got unique codes to unlock and download the digital book and, to heighten the thrill, they could track other readers and steal time from them. The e-book was connected to the website in real-time providing information about the reader’s location, reading speed and progress. The integration between the site and the mobile devices created a community of fans united by the thrill of a book.

The iPad e-book included a 24 hours timer, frightening story-related animations and an ominous “page burner” that destroyed every page as the user swiped it.

Minds were blown. More than 13,000 hours were spent reading our mobile version of “Private Vegas” and users sabotage each other almost 6,000 times, for a total of 5,310,000 stolen seconds.

86 articles were written around the world. We got coverage from traditional newspapers, like The Guardian, to technology magazines, like Wired and Mashable. Some bloggers even wrote about their experience our-by-hour. All the press coverage gave the campaign more than 419 million impressions.

Visitors to jamespatterson.com went up more than 60%. And the hardcover version of “Private Vegas” became a New York Times bestseller in the first week after the launch of the campaign.