To help promote Sam Lipsyte’s new novel, Farrar, Straus and Giroux is experimenting with a new kind of email newsletter–The LipSite.
Lipsyte’s The Ask focuses on the life of an unemployed university officer struggling to support his wife and family–comically exploring themes of “work, war, sex, class, child rearing, romantic comedies, Benjamin Franklin, cooking shows on death row, and the eroticization of chicken wire.” The publisher has broken these meditations into bite-sized morsels, sending out weekly, witty email excerpt from the book. In addition, subscribers can win a free, signed copy of three Lipsyte novels.
Here’s more about the email initiative: “Our brand new weekly dose of Lipsyte wit, delivered precisely at the most depressing point of your workweek. In addition to excerpts from Lipsyte’s fiction, we’ll also feature interviews and maybe a note or two from the man himself. We promise to keep the emails short and simple, so you’re not too distracted from your job.”