Archive for the ‘General’ Category

DailyLit Extern Projects Launch

I’ve always been a believer in internship and externship programs, particularly since I’ve been lucky enough in my own life to have greatly benefited from strong and supportive mentors.

We’ve started mentoring others here at DailyLit through both an internship and externship program.  It’s been wonderful to see the passion, insights and dedication that interns and externs have brought to DailyLit.  And these programs wouldn’t have been possible without the hard work and dedication of the programs’ overseers, Maggie Hilliard and Laura Kelly.

Today marks the launch of the initial projects from our DailyLit Extern Program.  We created this Externship Program for those interested in learning the digital publishing space – and there were only so many interns we could have working in our office at one time.  There were also a number of talented people working at large and small publishing houses who didn’t have the opportunity to learn the digital space in their current jobs. Incredibly talented people eager to learn was a resource we were eager to tap into.  And their projects show this talent.  For externs to complete their projects, they needed to dive into the world of social media, tap into on-line communities, start a blog and begin to tweet.  They also learned the basics of HTML (we gave them an introductory HTML class). The final projects are being launched on DailyLit.

You’ll see the fruits of the first externship projects  – “Authors in the Kitchen” by Megan Halpern here, and “The Ghost in the Pantry” by Erin Ferretti Slattery here. I hope you’ll join me in congratulating these externs on a job well done.

And I hope others will follow suit by starting their own mentoring programs.

Maintenance

We will be upgrading some systems tonight to be able to provide you an even better service in the future!  We expect DailyLit to be offline from 11pm Eastern for about 30 minutes.

For status updates please follow DailyLit on Twitter.

Update: 11:20pm Maintenance is finished and DailyLit is back online.

DailyLit Scheduled Maintenance

DailyLit and the DailyLit blog will be offline for scheduled maintenance from 3am to 4am EST on the morning of Thursday, July 30. Don’t worry: nothing will be lost, and your installments will still be delivered. If they’re scheduled for delivery between 3am and 4am, you’ll get them after the site goes back online at 4:00. Since this blog will be down during maintenance, check our Twitter account (@DailyLit) for updates.

Cory Doctorow’s “Little Brother” On Stage

The play’s the thing for one of our (and your) favorite DailyLit authors, Cory Doctorow.  His sci-fi novel Little Brother (which is free on DailyLit!) has been adapted for the stage and is currently being performed by the Griffin Theatre Company at the Athenaeum Theatre in Chicago. Boing Boing recently featured a few clips from the play, so everyone can checkit out. If you’re lucky enough to live in Chicago, you can see the play live–it runs through July 19. (And Cory himself will be stopping by on July 9!)

DailyLit News: June 2009

Dear DailyLit Reader,

Can you identify books with colors in the title (think: Red Badge of Courage); birds in the title (think: The Raven); or where the main character’s name is the title (think: Anna Karenina)? Those of you who’ve been participating in our forums know about those fun mini-challenges. Come play!

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

CLASSIC SHORTS: EIGHT STORIES FOR SUMMER

We’ve teamed up with Poets & Writers again to offer (for FREE!) Classic Shorts: Eight Short Stories for Summer. This will launch DailyLit’s series of short stories that you can enjoy throughout the year. Breeze through tales by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Edgar Allan Poe, and other master authors. Read FOR FREE.

DAILYLIT’S BIG READ: AMERICA’S GREATEST HITS

Be the smartest person at your July 4th barbeque! Join our Big Read of America’s Greatest Hits: Inspirational Reads that Define a Nation.  From the Declaration of Independence to President Obama’s Inaugural Address, these are works that give voice to the American spirit. Read FOR FREE.

READER CHALLENGE: CLASSICS IN 6 WORDS

Reader “auistinblan” originally suggested this idea, and we loved it so much we thought we’d make it this month’s Reader Challenge. Take the biggest, most literary, or most “important” book you know and summarize it in 6 words–no more, no fewer–and share your micro-masterpieces in our Reader Challenge forum.

NEW BOOKS ON DAILYLIT

- Mary Higgins Clark: Best-selling author Mary Higgins Clark comes to DailyLit with Where are the Children? This thriller will take you to Cape Cod, a summer paradise that becomes one woman’s nightmare. TRY FOR FREE.

- Indulge yourself: Feed your spirit with Chocolate for a Woman’s Soul, a best-selling collection of inspirational essays that make for decadent summer reading. TRY FOR FREE.

- Money Money Money: Instant Income can give you tips and ideas to help get you through this recession. Best of all you can TRY FOR FREE.

- Waiting by the phone? Why Hasn’t He Called? can help you figure out why the phone isn’t ringing. TRY FOR FREE.

- More Seth Godin: Marketing guru Seth Godin returns to DailyLit to share how his unique business strategies can help non-profits in Flipping the Funnel: Non-Profit Edition. You can read it FOR FREE.

FORGET YOUR USERNAME OR PASSWORD?

We’ve just made logging in to DailyLit that much easier by enabling “third party identity.” You can now use your username and password from Google, Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, AOL, Yahoo, Windows Live ID and OpenID, and you’ll be all set to go. Read more 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.

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.

The 6 Word Autobiography: Whose idea was it, anyway?

I just learned from Mark Hurst (of Good Experience and Gel conference fame) that the idea for the 6 Word Autobiography – our new reader challenge – came from the  folks at SMITH Magazine, where they dub it the “six-word memoir.” Thanks so much to Larry Smith and his crew for the inspirational idea. Check out SMITH Mag for lots of fun examples of six word memoirs.

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.

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