Archive for May, 2011

DailyLit News: Horsing Around with Margaret Atwood

In case you missed it in your inbox, here’s the latest news from DailyLit:

In this issue:
-Note from the Founder
-Big Read: Margaret Atwood’s “White Horse” Story
-New: Story by Acclaimed Crime Writer
-Seth Godin: Unboxed
-Question of the Week: Taking off to Lilliput
-Creative Challenge: Over to You

I’ve been horsing around recently with a couple of authors. Well, not exactly. But I am featuring Margaret Atwood’s short story, “White Horse” as this month’s Big Read. And I did meet her a couple of month’s ago. I can tell you she’s one smart, passionate and wonderfully formidable woman. And then there’s Seth Godin. He invited me (along with about 12 other women entrepreneurs) to spend a few days in his office where he inspired, challenged, and pushed us to take risks and take action. I hope you’ll be as inspired by the “Seth Godin: Unboxed” series I just launched as much as he inspired me.
So cheers — to taking risks and taking action!
-Susan

Susan Danziger
Founder and CEO, DailyLit
sdanziger@dailylit.com
Twitter:@susandanziger, @dailylit

BIG READ: MARGARET ATWOOD’S “WHITE HORSE” STORY

I can’t tell you how many requests I’ve had to feature work by Margaret Atwood. When I ran into her a few months ago and she generously offered one of her short stories, “White Horse“, I couldn’t believe my good luck. One of our readers, “lilfel” tweeted this week: “Don’t normally dig short stories, but got super attached to the characters in White Horse.”

NEW: STORY BY ACCLAIMED CRIME WRITER

Crime stories are not usually my cup of tea, but I have to say I enjoyed “A Moment of Wrong Thinking“, a short story by Lawrence Block. It reminded me of one of those old black and white movies with wonderful characters, intrigue and, thank goodness, no blood. Sometimes it’s good to shake things up.

SETH GODIN: UNBOXED

Having spent an intensive few days with bestselling author Seth Godin, I’m as impressed and inspired by him as ever. In this brand new series, “Seth Godin: Unboxed“, I’ve taken an excerpt from his new book, Poke the Box, and combined it with his most popular blog posts — that is, ones that were most tweeted or “liked” on Facebook. This series is meant to give you that kick in the pants we all need from time to time to take action.

QUESTION OF THE WEEK: TAKING OFF TO LILLIPUT

As we start to think about summer travel plans, the question this week is: “which fictional place (from a novel or story) would you like to travel to this summer? You can enter your destination here.

CREATIVE CHALLENGE — OVER TO YOU

My new creative challenge is, admittedly, a bit self-serving. I’m looking to find ideas for new creative challenges and weekly questions. So, for this new challenge: “which questions or challenges would you pose?” You can enter your ideas here.

Oh, and in case you’re feeling a bit cheated, here’s a recent creative challenge I posted: “combine ‘heads’ and ‘tails’ in one sentence”. You can enter your sentence here.

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DailyLit is the leading publisher of serialized books in digital form. Selected to be the #1 Book Website by the Sunday Times, DailyLit has sent over 40 million book installments. DailyLit’s books and series are all free and feature bestselling and award-winning titles. Installments can be read in fewer than 5 minutes and can be read wherever you receive email, including on any computer, Blackberry, or iPhone.

DailyLit’s Weekly Question: I’m off to Lilliput — how about you?

As we all start to think about summer travel plans, DailyLit’s Question of the Week is: which fictional place (from a novel or story) would you like to travel to this summer? You can enter your itinerary here.

I’m off to Lilliput — how about you?

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DailyLit is the leading publisher of serialized books in digital form. Selected to be the #1 Book Website by the Sunday Times, DailyLit has sent over 40 million book installments. DailyLit’s books and series are all free and feature bestselling and award-winning titles. Installments can be read in fewer than 5 minutes and can be read wherever you receive email, including on any computer, Blackberry, or iPhone.

DailyLit Launches New Series — Seth Godin: Unboxed

I’m delighted to announce the launch on DailyLit of a brand new series — Seth Godin: Unboxed. This series (available for free) includes an excerpt from bestselling author Seth Godin’s latest book, Poke the Box, combined with a number of his most popular, insightful blog posts.

I was extremely fortunate to have been invited to spend a few days with Seth (along with about a dozen amazing women entrepreneurs) for an intensive three-day workshop in his office. He inspired, challenged, and impressed us with his insightfulness, candor (he tells it like it is), and generosity (he even cooked lunches for us each day!)

Here’s what this new series is all about: Seth Godin: Unboxed gives you the kick you need to shake up your life. It combines an excerpt from bestselling author Seth Godin’s Poke the Box, with some favorite posts from Seth’s Blog that have been most “liked” on Facebook and most re-tweeted. And if you’re not familiar with Poke the Box, it’s been described as “a manifesto that just might make you uncomfortable. It’s a call to action about the initiative you’re taking—in your job or in your life. Godin knows that one of our scarcest resources is the spark of initiative in most organizations (and most careers)—the person with the guts to say, ‘I want to start stuff.’”

I hope you’ll be as inspired by this new series as much as Seth Godin has inspired me!

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DailyLit is the leading publisher of serialized books in digital form. Selected to be the #1 Book Website by the Sunday Times, DailyLit has sent over 40 million book installments. DailyLit’s books and series are all free and feature bestselling and award-winning titles. Installments can be read in fewer than 5 minutes and can be read wherever you receive email, including on any computer, Blackberry, or iPhone.

DailyLit Launches Short Story by Margaret Atwood as next Big Read

I’m thrilled to announce that DailyLit has just launched as its next Big Read, “White Horse”“, a short story by bestselling author Margaret Atwood.

I met Margaret Atwood a few months ago and was immediately impressed with her inquisitiveness and interest in how technology is affecting the future of publishing. I am grateful that she agreed to make her short story available for free on DailyLit for everyone to enjoy.

“White Horse” is part of a collection of short stories published in Moral Disorder.

Here’s what the critics have said about this story and the collection as a whole:

“Stories like ‘The White Horse’…prove Atwood is still a master of the compelling, peculiar portrait of human behavior.”
—Entertainment Weekly

“…Atwood’s stories evoke humankind’s disastrous hubris and phenomenal spirit with empathy and bemusement.”
—Booklist (Starred Review)

“Crisp, vivid detail and imagery and a rich awareness of the unity of human generations, people and animals…make Moral Disorder one of Atwood’s most accessible and engaging works yet.”
—Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

“Her stories are sophisticated, reticent, ornate, stark, supple, stiff, savage or forgiving; they are exactly what she wants them to be. They are stories from the prime of life.”
—Times Literary Supplement

Enjoy!

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DailyLit is the leading publisher of serialized books in digital form. Selected to be the #1 Book Website by the Sunday Times, DailyLit has sent over 40 million book installments. DailyLit’s books and series are all free and feature bestselling and award-winning titles. Installments can be read in fewer than 5 minutes and can be read wherever you receive email, including on any computer, Blackberry, or iPhone.

DailyLit Launches New Creative Challenge: “Heads or Tails”

This month’s creative challenge on DailyLit is to write a sentence that includes the words: “heads” and “tails”. You can enter your sentence here.

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DailyLit is the leading publisher of serialized books in digital form. Selected to be the #1 Book Website by the Sunday Times, DailyLit has sent over 40 million book installments. DailyLit’s books and series are all free and feature bestselling and award-winning titles. Installments can be read in fewer than 5 minutes and can be read wherever you receive email, including on any computer, Blackberry, or iPhone.

DailyLit Launches Short Story by Acclaimed Crime Writer, Lawrence Block

DailyLit has just launched “A Moment of Wrong Thinking”, a short story from acclaimed crime writer, Lawrence Block. The launch of this story is in celebration of Block’s new book, A Drop of the Hard Stuff, out this week.

“A Moment of Wrong Thinking” is not my typical read, but I have to say I enjoyed it. It’s a tale of suicide that may not be what it seems. I could well imagine this story filmed in black and white with characters from the 50s and a mystery that stays with you.

Sometimes it’s good to change up your reads. And with only 8 installments on DailyLit, it’s not a big commitment. In fact, I read it one sitting — love that “get the next installment immediately” feature!

Congrats to Lawrence Block on the publication of his new book, which you can check out here on Amazon.

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DailyLit is the leading publisher of serialized books in digital form. Selected to be the #1 Book Website by the Sunday Times, DailyLit has sent over 40 million book installments. DailyLit’s books and series are all free and feature bestselling and award-winning titles. Installments can be read in fewer than 5 minutes and can be read wherever you receive email, including on any computer, Blackberry, or iPhone.

DailyLit’s Question: Sweet or Salty?

DailyLit’s question this week is simple: sweet or salty? Which do you prefer? You can enter your preference here.

Thanks to Gretchen Rubin (of The Happiness Project) for the idea behind this week’s question. In case you missed it, she created Happiness Quotations for DailyLit — thanks, Gretchen!

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DailyLit is the leading publisher of serialized books in digital form. Selected to be the #1 Book Website by the Sunday Times, DailyLit has sent over 35 million book installments. DailyLit’s books and series are all free and feature bestselling and award-winning titles. Installments can be read in fewer than 5 minutes and can be read wherever you receive email, including on any computer, Blackberry, or iPhone.

DailyLit Launches More Khan Academy Video Courses

DailyLit has just launched the following additional Khan Academy Video Courses:
-Chemistry
-Current Economics
-Finance
-Organic Chemistry
-Paulson Bailout
-Pre-calculus
-Probability
-Trigonometry
-Venture Capital and Capital Markets

In case you missed the Khan Academy video courses previously launched on DailyLit, here’s the library of courses currently available:

In History:
-Revolutionary and Napoleonic France

In Science:
-Biology
-Chemistry
-Organic Chemistry

In Math:
-Arithmetic
-Developmental Math
-Geometry
-Algebra
-Pre-calculus
-Probability
-Trigonometry
-Differential Equations

In Banking and Finance:
-Current Economics
-Finance
-Valuation and Investing
-Venture Capital and Capital Markets
-Paulson Bailout

Just for Fun:
-Brain Teasers

All Khan Academy Video Courses on DailyLit include links to videos from The Khan Academy. In case you haven’t heard of The Khan Academy, it’s (to quote its site) “an organization on a mission… with the goal of changing education for the better by providing a free world-class education to anyone anywhere.” According to Sal Kahn, “I teach the way that I wish I was taught. The lectures are coming from me, an actual human being who is fascinated by the world around him.”

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DailyLit is the leading publisher of serialized books in digital form. Selected to be the #1 Book Website by the Sunday Times, DailyLit has sent over 35 million book installments. DailyLit’s books and series are all free and feature bestselling and award-winning titles. Installments can be read in fewer than 5 minutes and can be read wherever you receive email, including on any computer, Blackberry, or iPhone.