This application will change your life

The authors of the cult humour bestseller This Diary Will Change Your Life are offering their book as an online Facebook application – a first in the publishing world.

In a move that parallels Radiohead’s gambit to let fans decide whether to pay for their latest album or not, Benrik will use the Facebook application to provide their readers with a weekly instalment of their Diary, and expect enough of them to still pay for it in book form as well.

“This Application Will Change Your Life” will allow Benrik’s fans to follow the Diary’s weekly tasks together with their friends, and invite other Facebook users to join the Benrik cult.

Benrik already have their own website with over 20,000 registered readers; the Facebook application will increase their potential online readership exponentially.

Author Ben Carey of Benrik said: “If you have great viral content, Facebook is one of the best places for it to spread. We’re expecting that many of those who install and pass on our application will go on to buy our book as well.” 

"Pan Macmillan has been looking for new ways to extend the bestselling “This Diary Will Change Your Life” brand into the digital space. Developing a dedicated, interactive Facebook application tied into the book's content seemed the perfect approach." Sara Lloyd, Head of Digital Publishing, Pan Macmillan.

Notes to editors: 

Facebook Platform is a development system that enables companies and developers to build applications for the Facebook website, where all of Facebook’s 57 million users can interact with them. Facebook ® is a registered trademark of Facebook Inc.

Benrik are Ben Carey and Henrik Delehag. Their This Diary Will Change Your Life series has sold over 450,000 copies worldwide. The Diary gives its readers weekly tasks that will change their lives if followed, although not necessarily for the better.

The application launches officially on Monday 10 December.