Archive for May, 2009

DailyLit May Newsletter

Dear DailyLit Reader,

This month marks 2 years from our official launch – happy birthday to DailyLit!   What better way to celebrate than with free food – well, free recipes that is. Check out our launch of DailyLit’s Cookbook Tastes with Emeril at the Grill, just in time for Memorial Day. We’ve also got free essays by Toni Morrison and Nadine Gordimer from Burn This Book and a fun creative challenge that can help support the National Book Foundation. Oh, and your “To Read” list just got a lot smarter. Check out our new feature below.

Happy Memorial Day!

Susan Danziger
Founder and CEO, DailyLit
susan@dailylit.com.

DAILYLIT’S BIG READ
By popular request, we’ve named one of Sherlock Holmes’ most famous mysteries, The Adventure of the Speckled Band, as our next Big Read. With only 13 installments, it’s elementary, my dear Watson. READ FOR FREE.

NEW READER CHALLENGE
Imagine a sequel to your favorite book (think PRIDE AND PREJUDICE 2). Create a title and write the first sentence of that book. Then share your title and sentence in our Reader Challenge forum. You can read sample sequels FOR FREE via DailyLit to get your creative juices flowing. And, if you enter your sequel at www.bookthesequel.com as well, your creation could be selected for Book: The Sequel, to be published by the Perseus Book Group, with proceeds going to The National Book Foundation.  Deadline for entries: Thursday, May 28th at 4pm. Here’s one to get you going: “Call me, Ishmael!” from Moby Dick’s Guide to Dating at Sea.

FREE ESSAYS FROM BURN THIS BOOK
Read essays by Nobel Prize winners Toni Morrison and Nadine Gordimer that celebrate free speech.  READ FOR FREE.

FREE RECIPES FROM EMERIL AT THE GRILL
We’re launching DailyLit’s Cookbook Tastes (that is, a line of recipes from new and noteworthy cookbooks), and chef Emeril Lagasse is kicking off the line by making recipes from Emeril at the Grill available for FREE to DailyLit readers – just in time for Memorial Day. Check out his take on classic barbeque chicken or yellowfin tuna with pineapple salsa. And for dessert? Grilled banana split.   READ FOR FREE.

NOTEWORTHY BOOKS JUST LAUNCHED
- By popular demand, we’ve added another book by marketing master Seth Godin. Check out his Flipping the Funnel: Company Edition. READ FOR FREE.
- An award-winning journalist goes behind diets to find out from 21 women how they stay motivated, happy, and healthy in The Secrets of Skinny Chicks. TRY FOR FREE.
- If you blow off work to read your DailyLit installments all day, maybe it’s time to switch careers. Three Signs of a Miserable Job shows you what you can do to get back on a track you love. Just don’t give up your DailyLit! TRY FOR FREE.

TIP FOR BLACKBERRY USERS
In case your installments aren’t rendering properly on your Blackberry (or other mobile device), switch your format to plain text. Here’s what you need to do: click on the “Manage all your book settings” link in any installment, select the “More” option, and change the format from HTML to plain text. Or, you can visit DailyLit on your computer, log in with your username and password, and click on the “Manage the books you’re reading” link on your Settings page.

NEW: YOUR “TO READ” LIST JUST GOT A LOT SMARTER
We’re happy to introduce the new “To-Read” list auto-start feature. Now, when you finish reading a book, the next book on your “To-Read” BookList will automatically start arriving in your inbox. Learn more.

Join Etsy Book Club’s Discussion of Walden

DailyLit recently teamed up with Etsy to support their book club’s read of Walden by making it DailyLit’s Big Read. Tonight the book club will meet virtually and discuss their thoughts on this classic work by Henry David Thoreau. Readers are “gathering” online at 7:00pm EST tonight (May 20) at Etsy’s Virtual Labs. It’s the book club, 21<sup>st</sup> century style.

Question of the Week #26: Once upon a time…

Monday, May 18 is Victoria Day, a holiday in British Commonwealth countries celebrating Queen Victoria’s birthday. Her reign lasted from 1837 to 1901, the longest of any royal in British history.

Many stories, plays, and novels feature kings and queens, but they may figure most prominently in fairy tales.

What’s your favorite fairy tale? Head to our Question of the Week forum to share your response.

DailyLit Launches Digital Publishing Group

We’re excited to announce the launch of the Digital Publishing Group (DPG), an industry group designed to educate, inspire, and empower publishing professionals to take advantage of the digital space. We’re planning to hold monthly events, and all industry professionals and students, including publishers, booksellers, and service providers, are welcome to attend. Our first event, co-sponsored by the Book Industry Study Group, will be a brown bag lunch on May 6 at the Random House offices in New York.  Debbie Stier, SVP and Associate Publisher of HarperStudio and Director of Digital Marketing at HarperCollins, will be speaking about “what’s next” for the publishing industry. There are a few seats still available for this free event; if you’d like to attend, please contact me (Maggie Hilliard) at DailyLit: mhilliard [at] dailylit [dot] com. You can also hear the latest about the group by tracking the #digpub tag on Twitter.

Question of the Week #25: Memorable Mothers

With Mother’s Day coming up this Sunday, our Question of the Week is about memorable moms in literature. Which character made a great mom–and which ones were not so helpful? Tell us about your favorite literary moms in our Question of the Week forum. (And don’t forget to order  flowers for your own mom!)