Hybrid Lit
It’s the newest trend in publishing --
why reality is seeping into our fiction.

Fifteen Minutes of Shame  (Plume/Penguin, April 2008) is a dating advice book within a novel.

Dan Brown’s DaVinci Code introduced readers to fact-filled fiction, and now a group of new authors is taking the idea one step further: Lisa Daily is leading the pack in the emerging trend of Hybrid Lit, a non-fiction and fiction blend, with a crop of new novels that offer everything from writing instruction to sushi recipes.

As Fifteen Minutes of Shame’s main character Darby Vaughn, a TV dating expert, discovers  her husband is cheating, the reader is introduced to her relationships advice , both past and present at the beginning of each chapter.

Author Lisa Daily created the hybrid in an attempt to build more depth into a first-person narrative.  “One of the limiting aspects of first-person is that you just have your narrator’s perspective on events.  By using Darby’s advice column and tips at the end of each chapter, I was able to show readers how she was perceived by the public, and illustrate the difference between what she did in her own life versus what she told others to do in theirs.”

“I love the contrast at the very beginning of the book -- there’s a quote that says you should always leave the house looking your best (which coincidentally is a quote from Daily’s own dating advice book, Stop Getting Dumped!) and then in the very first scene, she’s squatting behind a dumpster in her pajamas, spying on her husband.   I love that disparity.”

For more information on Hybrid Lit, or examples of other books leading the trend, please contact Lisa Daily or Mary Pomponio.

About the author: Lisa Daily is a real-life TV relationships expert, author of the bestselling dating advice book Stop Getting Dumped!  and a popular media guest and source seen everywhere from the New York Times to iVillage Live. Fifteen Minutes of Shame  is her first novel.  For more, visit www.lisadaily.com

Great angles for reviewers & feature writers
Fifteen Minutes of Shame

Review Fifteen Minutes of Shame
It’s funny, it’s smart, it’s the perfect spring read. Lisa Daily’s debut novel is pegged to be the hit of the summer:  what happens when America’s favorite dating expert finds out her husband is cheating?

Can Stepparents Sue For Custody?
Fifteen Minutes of Shame delves into one of the most controversial topics in family law today: stepparents rights.  The main character in Fifteen Minutes of Shame, Darby Vaughn, is a celebrity dating guru who goes through a very public divorce, and hopes to gain custody of her stepchildren, whom she has grown to love.  Fifteen Minutes of Shame author Lisa Daily and celebrity divorce attorney John Mayoue offer commentary and insight.

Don’t Call Me Cute.
Fifteen Minutes of Shame is funny and feminine and decked out in the mandatory pastel cover, but it’s also smart with emotional depth. It’s a question that has many women’s fiction writers up in arms:  Is it worse to be perceived as a stuffy literary author, and then have the reader be shocked to find that you’re funny?  Or worse to be perceived as funny but shallow, and have the reader be surprised to find that you’re smart?  Why lots of women’s fiction authors can’t stand cute.