Wednesday, September 03, 2008

DailyLit Gives Us Our Daily Fix

Sometimes you just stumble upon something and know its right and it was what you were looking for. Often when you do, you have to pinch yourself and ask why something often so simple is not universally known and used?

Today we received an email in a string about Keitai novels, instalment books, micropayment models etc. The email apologised that it was something of an advert as the writer wished to bring to our attention their business DailtLit. We were intrigued and before we could finish our coffee had signed up and received our first instalment.

DailyLit is based out of Mamaroneck, New York they started having seen the New York Times serialized a few classic works in special supplements and realised the model’s potential if combined to email. Today DailyLit sends daily e-mails or RSS feeds of instalments to over 1000 classic and contemporary titles to their readers. Some books are free, some are part free,others are on a Pay-Per-Read basis. You simply pick up your daily fix on your PC, Blackberry, iPhone, whatever and get a 5 minute read. If you want more, you can receive additional instalments immediately on demand.

DailyLit has gone further by creating reading forums around books and authors and a blog where readers can share tips. They even have a gift service where you can send a book to a friend by instalments with a personalised message from you.
This model makes more sense than some of the book social network sites, that we have seen come and go. The issue is content once again and getting all parties to accept a different model and one that is not DRM protected. It isn’t just about instalments of finished books. Charles Dickens wrote in instalments and here is the opportunity to do it again. Also the short story is another form that is perfectly suited to this model.

Hats off to DailyLit and we hope that you succeed and many thanks for giving many of us a surprise.

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