As soon as I heard about DailyLit, I knew it was going to be a hit. There is no question in my mind that serving up books to readers – either through mobile devices or on their computers — is part the future of publishing. HarperStudio successfully experimented with DailyLit as a marketing opportunity for our first three books.

The effort resulted in the following:

–WHO IS MARK TWAIN?: 1013 subscriptions

–BURN THIS BOOK: 529 subscriptions

–EMERIL AT THE GRILL: 751 subscriptions

And if anyone out there hasn’t tried a book on DailyLit, you really must. You’ll be surprised at how fast they go down.

I asked Susan Danziger, the founder of DailyLit, a few questions:

1) What’s the biggest surprise you’ve found about your readers?

Our readers tend to be passionate, engaged readers 60% of whom have read between 10 and over 50 books in the last year (more than I’ve managed to do without DailyLit!)

2) Are most people reading fiction or non-fiction?

Most people are reading fiction since we started with classic, fiction books and then introduced non-fiction with contemporary works such as business series from Tom Peters and Seth Godin, language courses from Berlitz, and recipes from Emeril’s cookbook.

3) What’s been your most popular book and why?

Pride and Prejudice (available for free) has been the most popular book; no surprise that it’s been a huge hit.

4) Are most people reading DailyLit on their phones or computers? (not sure you can tell this)

Most people have been reading DailyLit on their computers at home or at work. We have a number of folks who read books via email so that their bosses think they’re reading work-related emails; others who read on their mobile phone while at Starbucks or even while brushing teeth in their bathroom, and even one fellow who reads in bed to avoid sex with his wife!

5) When we first spoke a year ago, publishers were nervous about giving you these books DRM-free. Has that evolved at all?

Yes, publishers are definitely less concerned about the DRM issue these days. Since each of our books are divided into up to hundreds of installments, publishers have interpreted that as its own kind of DRM. Also, publishers realize that DailyLit is a great way to virally market their titles. For instance, we integrated with Twitter so that if you link your DailyLit profile to your Twitter account, books you start reading will be automatically tweeted to your followers. The first book we launched with this program in place, Who is Mark Twain?, let over 17,600 followers (from 33 tweets) know about that book in a period of 2-3 days (and according to my contact over at Powells.com, it made their bestseller list!)

DailyLit (www.dailylit.com) is the leading publisher of serialized books in digital form. DailyLit currently features over 1400 classic and contemporary books available for free or for a small fee. Short book installments are sent via e-mail or RSS feed and arrive in a reader’s inbox (or RSS feedreader), which can be read on a desktop, laptop or mobile device (including an iPhone or Blackberry) according to the schedule set by each reader (e.g. 7:00am every weekday). Installments can be read in fewer than 5 minutes, and additional installments are available on demand. DailyLit’s titles include bestselling and award winning titles, from literary fiction and non-fiction to romance and science fiction. Co-founded by a team of publishing professionals and technology experts, DailyLit is headquartered in Mamaroneck, New York.