DailyLit, which began as a service in 2006 to e-mail short installments of books for consumers to read on different mobile devices, is being merged with Plympton, a digital publishing house dedicated to serialized fiction founded by journalist Jennifer 8. Lee and the novelist Yael Goldstein Love. Lee plans to use DailyLit’s digital platform to continue to offer serialized titles from other publishing houses, but also to promote Plympton's original series.
In a blog post announcing the deal, Lee wrote that the “combination of DailyLit’s worldwide distribution platform together with Plympton’s original serial fiction presents a unique and exciting opportunity in cutting-edge publishing.” According to Lee, Plympton’s editorial team has been commissioning new series with original fiction coming from, among others, Rachel Kadish, author of the critically-acclaimed novels From a Sealed Room and Tolstoy Lied: A Love Story; Deni Bechard, whose debut novel Vandal Love won the 2007 Commonwealth Writers’ Prize; National Book Award Finalist Edith Pearlman; and Julian Gough, whose novel Jude in Ireland was shortlisted for the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize for Comic Fiction.
To oversee the technical aspects of the Plympton/DailyLit effort, Jacqueline Chang, mostly recently an engineer at StumbleUpon, has been named Chief Technology Officer. Chang will be charged with making sure content can be delivered to consumers when and how they want it. “We feel there is huge opportunity in building up the direct-to-reader distribution model, both for Plympton's own titles, as well as other publishers who are releasing serialized titles. Clearly, we are looking at mobile, given how smartphones and tablets are changing the way we read,” explained Lee.
Since its launch, DailyLit has delivered 50 million installments of short items to 800,000 readers. Lee said she expects most new stories and excerpts will be in the 10,000-12,000 word range. Pricing models and other distribution delivery details will be announced by Lee at a March South By Southwest panel.
DailyLit cofounders Susan Danziger and Albert Wenger are now investors and advisors to the combined company.
