Archive for the ‘Features’ Category

Reading DailyLit in Google Reader

We recently discovered a bug that affected folks reading DailyLit by RSS using Google Reader. The problem prevented new books from auto-starting when they should–for instance, if you have a To-Read list and finish your current book, the next book on your list should automatically start, and for Google Reader users this wasn’t happening.

We’ve now fixed the bug. If you’re in the middle of reading a book in Google Reader you won’t be affected. If you’ve finished books in Google Reader, it’s possible you might receive an installment from those books, which is unfortunately an unavoidable consequence of our fixing this bug.

If you previously finished a book and expected another book to auto-start and didn’t see it, you can correct the problem by unsubscribing and resubscribing to the feed in Google Reader. Then the feed will update properly and bring you up to speed.

30 Stories in 30 Days Update

Here’s an update for those of you who’ve signed up for 30 Stories in 30 days. You’ll be getting all your stories, but it may take an extra day. To make sure you’re up to date, you can hit the “send next installment immediately” link at the bottom of your latest installment. If there’s one in the queue that hasn’t been pushed to your email yet, you’ll receive it then. If you’re caught up, you’ll see a message that tells you there’s nothing you haven’t yet received.

We hope you’re enjoying the stories.

30 Stories in 30 Days Bug

Some readers are experiencing difficulty receiving their installments of 30 Stories in 30 Days. We are investigating and will have more information soon.

Cool New Technology…

DailyLit is on a roll.  We’ve just released some cool new technology to bring you open-ended series, allowing us to add the latest and greatest content over time.  Our new DailyLit Selects: Book Excerpt program uses this technology to periodically send you excerpts of interest.  Dan Brown’s new book is kicking off that program.

The technology also allows for timed releases so we can bring you content according to a set schedule.  And just in time.  We’re releasing 30 stories in 30 days next week – all by David Wellington – to celebrate the launch of his front list title, Frostbite (a tale of werewolves in the frozen north).

Oh, and did I mention these series are all free?

DailyLit Enables Third Party Identity Logins

Logging in to DailyLit just became a lot easier. Now you can use your username and password from Google, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, AOL, Windows Live ID, Yahoo, and OpenID to log in to your DailyLit account. And if you haven’t yet created a (free) DailyLit account, you can do that with your third party identity too. Read more about it here.

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.

DailyLit’s April Newsletter

Message from the CEO

We’re all crazily busy this time of year so I’ll get right to it: this month we’re featuring Who is Mark Twain? — a never-before published collection of essays by Mark Twain; our new Big Read of Thoreau’s Walden; a series of poems by late, great poets; and books by such bestselling authors as Nicholas Sparks, Eudora Welty, and Seth Godin.

We’ve also got a new creative challenge for you — to write a six word autobiography. That’s right — only 6 words!

Oh, and if you want to offer DailyLit titles on your website, join our new, free affiliate program (each installment will include a link back to your site); details are below.

As always, if you have any ideas for ways we can improve DailyLit, it would be great to hear from you. You can contact me or include your comments in our feedback forum.

Susan Danziger
Founder and CEO
susan@dailylit.com


DailyLit’s Big Read

In celebration of Earth Day, DailyLit’s next Big Read is Thoreau’s Walden. We got our inspiration from Etsy, which we’re working with in support of its virtual book club. Oh, and did I mention Walden is FREE?


Poems by Late, Great Poets — Exclusive to DailyLit

To celebrate National Poetry Month, we’re offering for FREE Masters of Verse, a lovely selection of poems (one a day) by late, great poets that was compiled by Poets & Writers, the non-profit organization that supports creative writers.


Bestselling, Prize-Winning Books

- Bestselling author Nicholas Sparks comes to DailyLit with The Lucky One. You can check it out by reading the first 5 INSTALLMENTS FOR FREE.

- By popular demand, we’re releasing another Seth Godin book: Unleashing the Ideavirus gives tips and strategies for building a viral and successful business. COMPLETELY FREE.

- We’re pleased to add Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Eudora Welty’s One Writer’s Beginnings, a book USA Today called “a rare gift for us all.” Everyone can TRY FOR FREE.


Who is Mark Twain?

A first for DailyLit: courtesy of HarperStudio, we’re offering (for FREE) Who is Mark Twain?, a never before published collection of 24 essays written by, who else, Mark Twain! Here’s one of my favorite Twain quotes:
“My books are water; those of the great geniuses is wine. Everybody drinks water.”

And here’s a fun exchange with the editor of Who is Mark Twain?:
Question: The blogger Ben Sutherland said Mark Twain’s spirit “lives as a garden gnome in Stephen Colbert’s pants.” What do you make of that?
Answer: Doesn’t Sutherland have that backwards? Colbert is clearly the offspring of Mark Twain, not the other way around.
To find out what Mark Twain would have said about Barack Obama, read more here.


Affiliate Program

DailyLit is getting out there! We just launched our free affiliate program so that you too can offer DailyLit titles on your site. As an added bonus, DailyLit books found on your site will include a link back to your site in each installment. For more information, shoot us an email at affiliate@dailylit.com.


New Reader Challenge: The 6 Word Autobiography

Write a 6 word autobiography — that’s right, in exactly 6 words (no more, no less), tell us the story of your life. This is another inspirational idea from author Daniel Pink, who highlighted the importance of exercising your creative muscle for personal and professional success. And no fair making up words-that-don’t-exist-

normally-as-hyphenated-words so as not to exceed the limit! Post your autobiography here so we can all enjoy.


50 word Challenge Favorites

Remember, the challenge was to write a short story in exactly 50 words. We’ve had some great entries (over 100); check them out here and let us know which ones are your favorites.

And don’t forget to submit your 6 word autobiography for the new reader challenge.

DailyLit Launches Affiliate Program

DailyLit is getting out there! We’ve just launched an affiliate program, which allows third party sites to feature individual DailyLit books so that folks can sign up to read books via that site. The neat thing about this program is that each installment of the book includes a note that says “You found us through [name of site]” with a link to that site. Since a book may have over 100 installments sent to a reader’s email inbox each day, it’s a nice daily reminder of that affiliate site–and it’s completely free for the affiliate. The program is up and running on Poets & Writers’s website pw.org–check it out!

If you’re interested in being a DailyLit affiliate, write to us at support@dailylit.com.

DailyLit Teams Up With Etsy’s Book Club

We’re excited to announce that DailyLit has teamed up with Etsy’s Book Club for a group read of Thoreau’s Walden. You can join the thousands of folks who will be reading this classic book during April and May 2009. At the end of the group read Etsy will be hosting a virtual book club meeting at 7:00pm EST on May 20 at their Virtual Labs. In the meantime, you can share your thoughts and questions in our Walden forum. Head out into the woods and join us at Walden pond!

DailyLit’s 50 Word Challenge

I recently read Daniel Pink’s A Whole New Mind (great book, by the way), which explained that storytelling is essential for professional success and personal fulfillment. As an exercise to spark your creativity, he offered this challenge: write a 50-word mini-saga, which is an extremely short story with a beginning, a middle, and an end. That’s exactly 50 words (no more, no less).

Since DailyLit is all about short bits of lit, we thought we’d hold our very own 50 Word Challenge. So, get your creative juices flowing and come up with your own 50-word mini-saga. Once you’re done, post it in our 50 Word Challenge Forum so we can all enjoy reading them. We’re up for the challenge. How about you?

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