Archive for the ‘Tips’ 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.

DailyLit News: November 2009

Note from the CEO
It’s facetime here at DailyLit!  Upload a picture on your profile page and be eligible to win a free John Grisham book. It’s also time to thank Diane Von Furstenberg for sponsoring one of her favorite books of the year, Madame de Staël, now available for free on DailyLit.    And it’s time to launch our “Big Ideas” channel with inspiration from Gary Vaynerchuck, named one of this year’s most influential men.  We’ve also got free daily tips from Grammar Girl (secrets out — I love grammar!) and a new feature that allows you to automatically resume your books when you want to take a break for the holidays — just in time!

Susan Danziger
Founder and CEO, DailyLit
susan [at] dailylit [dot] com

Diane von Furstenberg Brings Favorite Book to DailyLit for Free
Iconic designer Diane von Furstenberg has a holiday gift for you: one of her favorite reads this year is now available on DailyLit for free.  Madame de Stael: The First Modern Woman is a fast-paced biography that tells the glamorous, dramatic story of a woman who was a true force to be reckoned with. Vogue Magazine called it “a timely mediation on female power and an inspiring profile of one woman’s courage.” Thanks to Diane and the publisher, it’s free through the end of January. Read it.

New! DailyLit Kicks off “Big Ideas”
“Big Ideas” is designed to inspire you with new ideas for both work and play.  Kicking off this new channel is inspiration from Gary Vaynerchuk’s new book Crush It! Cash In on your Passion.  He grew his family’s wine business and became a national industry leader, landing him at #18 on AskMen.com’s list of 50 most influential Men of 2009. Read it–FREE.

DailyLit’s Big Read: Short Story by John Grisham
Bestselling author John Grisham just released his first ever collection of short stories, Ford County–and we’ve selected one as this month’s Big Read. “Fetching Raymond” is a simple, powerful story about a day one family knew was coming but still can’t face. Read it–FREE.

Reader Challenge
As bestselling author Daniel Pink wrote, exercising your creativity leads to personal and professional success.  With that in mind, and holiday dinners fast approaching, this month’s reader challenge asks you to imagine a fictional holiday gathering and describe–in no more than 50 words–a character, conversation or event at your holiday meal. Share your mini-stories in our Reader Challenge forum. And to sweeten the pot, we’ll select three winners, each of whom will receive a copy of Mollie Katzen’s new book, Get Cooking.

New reads
–Grammar Girl: She’s on the scene to make grammar easy and fun with her “quick and dirty” tips.  We’ve got a selection from her new book that will make you a better writer. Read it–FREE.
–Jane Perry Returns: In a second piece of original writing, Laurel Dewey’s inimitible heroine Detective Jane Perry returns to DailyLit. Get into her head with “You Can’t Judge a Book by its Cover,” a blog entry by the detective. Read it–FREE. (And if you missed the first installment, “An Unfinished Death,” read it here–FREE.)

Pause Your Books for the Holidays
You’ve always been able to suspend and resume delivery of your books using the links at the end of any installment. Now, with the holidays coming up, when you want to suspend your book, you can set a date for it to automatically resume.  Just click on the “suspend” link at the bottom of any installment to set it up.

Upload Your Picture Now–You May Win a Grisham Book
To make our community a little friendlier, join us for some facetime here at DailyLit.  Help us out by uploading a personalized profile picture. Your face, your cat, your favorite painting–doesn’t matter what you choose. And everyone with a personalized picture uploaded by 11:59pm EST on Sunday, November 22nd will be automatically entered to win one of five copies of John Grisham’s new book Ford County.

Happy Fourth of July!

The long holiday weekend is just about to begin, and we’d like to wish all of our readers a Happy 4th of July! If you’re feeling patriotic–or if it rains and you’re stuck inside–check out our collection of America’s Greatest Hits, which includes the Declaration of Independence and other inspiring words from some of this country’s most storied leaders. You can also tell us who your favorite American author is or share your pick for the “Great American Novel” in our forums. Or, if you need some ideas for your backyard party, we’ve got yummy free recipes for you in Emeril at the Grill. Enjoy! (And be safe! Remember, Moms take away fireworks for a reason.)

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.

Big Week for DailyLit

This has been a big week for DailyLit. We just launched 2 big initiatives:

1. We published in serialized form the first book out on the Madoff scandal, ahead of all the big trade publishers. The Madoff book that we serialized will be published in physical form by Globe Pequot Press in the next couple of months.

2. DailyLit’s Big Read, which brings together folks from all around the world to read the same story at the same time. We selected the short story “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” which I’ve wanted to read since seeing the movie. I just read the first installment; I hope you’ll join me in reading this short story (only 11 installments!).

We’ve also just launched a survey to find out the kinds of contemporary books you’d like to see on DailyLit. It would be great if you could take the time to let us know your thoughts.

I spent the week at O’Reilly’s TOC conference, including being on a panel on “New Reading Habits” run by Peter Brantley. The conference was full of Tweeters, which was great fun (in fact, you can follow our Big Read on Twitter at http://twitter.com/DailyLitBigRead). And you can always follow DailyLit at http://twitter.com/DailyLit).

Oh, and here’s our newsletter in case you didn’t get a copy in your inbox.

Dear DailyLit Reader,

I hope you’ve continued to enjoy your DailyLit. If you haven’t visited DailyLit.com in a while, you might be surprised at our new design and features.

DailyLit’s Big Read: We’re excited to announce DailyLit’s Big Read, an event that invites everyone to read the same story at the same time. Join us in reading F. Scott Fitzgerald’s short story “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” – just in time for the Academy Awards (where the film version of the story might win big), and it’s completely FREE. You can also read on Twitter (start following DailyLitBigRead). Join DailyLit’s Big Read!

First Madoff Book: The first book published on the Madoff scandal is now available on DailyLit! Madoff: Corruption, Deceit, and the Making of the World’s Most Notorious Ponzi Scheme tells the story of Wall Street’s biggest scandal. Read it first on DailyLit ($9.95 – Try it free!).

Help Us Help You: We’re trying to expand our collection of contemporary books and improve our service. Take our survey and let us know the kinds of books and authors you’d like to see on DailyLit and make your suggestions known.

Tip of the Day: You can easily change your delivery times, installment lengths, create “To Read” lists, and participate in our forums by becoming a DailyLit Member (it’s FREE). In just a few months over 50,000 of you have done just that – oh, and don’t let someone else beat you to your username!

All Aboard:
–We’ve just launched our Grand Wikipedia Tour for those of you who want to take a wild ride through history and culture and explore the world from your inbox. With a theme that changes every month or so, you can hang out with Greek gods, fly around the world, and swing in the 1960s – all for FREE.
–To put you in the mood for the Oscars, take our Wikipedia Tour: Best Picture Oscar Winners (FREE).

The Lighter (and Younger) Side:
–Fat, Forty, and Fired – a perfect title now available on DailyLit for today’s crazy world (makes a fun gift – or not!) ($6.95 – Try it free!).
–1001 Ways to Stay Young Naturally – 365 days of tips that will keep you on track throughout the year ($6.95 – Try it free!).

Love is in the Air:
–Make your friend’s inbox blush with Berlitz’s Hide this… Book for Lovers series where naughty words are taught in French, Italian, or Spanish ($3.95 each – Try them free!).
–Or maybe Tabloid Love, a Devil Wears Prada-like story of finding love in New York ($6.95 – Try it free!).
–For those of you looking to hook up, check out SuperFlirt and SuperDate for tips on how to bring your A-game to the dating scene ($9.95 each – Try them free!).

And to celebrate Valentine’s Day, here’s a poem by Elizabeth Barrett Browning I thought you might enjoy:

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with the passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints,–I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life!–and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.

Sonnets from the Portuguese, Sonnet XLIII

Cheers,

-Susan

P.S. We’re looking for volunteers and interns to make DailyLit better. Please contact internship@dailylit.com if you’re interested in helping out.

P.P.S. Don’t forget to take our survey!

__________________

Susan Danziger
Founder and CEO
susan@dailylit.com

New DailyLit “From” Name

As of last Friday, all book installments from DailyLit will come from “DailyLit.” If you sort your e-mail by sender, you’ll now find us under D for DailyLit. Our “from” email address–books@dailylit.com–is still the same; we’ve just added the “from” name so our emails look better in your inbox. Keepin’ it classy!

Tip #4: Customize Your Subscription Settings

Our fourth tip is all about you: specifically, how you can customize your subscriptions on DailyLit. Lots of you asked about this on our new Reader Survey for Free Books, so we hope this helps. (And if you’re a DailyLit reader who hasn’t taken the survey yet, please do! It will help us give you more free books, which makes everybody happy.)

You can customize the frequency, time, and length of your installments, and you can do so in three different places.

You can customize your subscription:
1. In the Subscribe Box on the book page when you sign up for a book.
2. On the Subscription Confirmation Page, which you see after you click on the link in the email confirming your subscription.
3. On the Manage Your Subscriptions page, which you can access via the “Manage Your Subscriptions” link in any email or by logging in.

In addition to the adjustable delivery time, there are three frequency options that are visible in a drop down menu (Weekdays, Every Day, and Monday, Wednesday and Friday). If you click on the word “Advanced,” you’ll see the ability to fully customize delivery frequency and the length of your installments: normal, longer (twice as long as a regular installment), and longest (4 times as long).

See? When we say that our books come to you on your schedule, we really mean it.

If you’ve been following our tips series, you’ve already learned some cool tricks to make DailyLit easier and more fun to use. (Out of the loop? Tsk-tsk. Get caught up here with tips #1: Reading on your Blackberry, #2: Managing your DailyLit books in Outlook, and #3: Managing your DailyLit books in Gmail.)

Do you have a DailyLit tip? Email it to us at support[at]dailylit[dot]com.

DailyLit Tip #3: Using Filters and Labels in Gmail

Our second tip was about managing your DailyLit emails in Outlook. Gmail users, now it’s your turn. Learn how to easily manage your DailyLit emails in Gmail using filters and labels. (And check out our first tip here.)

To set up a filter that will label your installments:
-Click on “Settings” in the upper right, then click on “Filters.”
-To filter all emails from DailyLit, fill in “books@dailylit.com” in the “from” field.
-Or, to filter installments of a single book, write the book title in the subject line.
-Click “next.”
-Now you can apply a label (either “DailyLit” or an individual title) to filtered emails as well as select other options: have the emails skip the inbox, always be marked with a star, and so on. When you’re happy with the settings, click “Create Filter” and voilà—your filter is ready to use.

If you’d rather not use a filter, you can create a DailyLit label to apply after you read emails. Click on the “More Actions” drop down menu, create a DailyLit or book label, then use the check boxes and drop-down menu to apply the label to individual emails.

Other Gmail tips:
-You can retroactively apply filters to all the emails you’ve received from DailyLit.
-If you set your emails to skip your inbox, they’re easily accessible by clicking on the DailyLit or book label in the “Labels” box to the lower left of the inbox.
-To file away emails after they come into your inbox, after you’ve read the email, apply the DailyLit or book label, then click the “Archive” button in the upper left. You can access your archives in the “Labels” box.

If you have any trouble getting your folders set up email us at support [at] dailylit [dot] com. We’re happy to help.

Have a tip of your own? Send it to support [at] dailylit [dot] com.