A former journalist has set up a company to market the works of new authors via the internet.

Rhiannon Hill came up with the idea of posting unpublished works on the web after writing a book of her own.

She said: "I wrote the book as a bit of fun but couldn't be bothered with the whole process of finding a literary agent."

Ms Hill decided to create a website where visitors could download the first chapter of her book, a sci-fi thriller, for free, before deciding whether to purchase the rest.

She said: "I was doing this with my novel and a friend was doing the same with his book.

"We thought if it was a good idea for us, then maybe other new authors would be interested as well."

"We work on the same principle with books as an MP3 site does for downloading music.

"Now it has turned into a business and we have been getting lots of interest."

Ms Hill, who lives in Hove, described AkashaBooks as 'run by writers for writers'.

She said: "If we feel a book deserves to be seen we will put it on the net. After all, Stephen King has done it."

As well as marketing new works the company also provides an online editing service.

For more information, log on to www.akashabooks.com