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Release Date - September 13, 2004

FIVE MONTHS FROM UNKNOWN TO BESTSELLER:
E-PUBLISHING MAKES DREAMS COME TRUE

MILWAUKEE, WI - Milwaukee writer Diane Lau had been freelancing for over 25 years with limited success. Ultimately she found more satisfaction and a larger readership by offering her writing for free on her website. In late 2003, moved by praise from online readers, she decided to try a new approach to publication.

She polished up a romance story and submitted it to a couple of e-publishers, under the pen name Diana Laurence. The second publisher she contacted accepted the piece.

Lau got busy and made more submissions. In short order, her first ebook, a story collection titled Soulful Sex: Erotic Tales of Fantasy and Romance, was available from New Age Dimensions Publishing. Over the next several months, she published eight electronic works, including a novel, Souls' Embrace, which is also sold as a trade paperback.

Meanwhile, one of the distribution channels New Age Dimensions used for Soulful Sex was Amazon.com, the pre-eminent bookselling website. It took but a few months for the book to climb Amazon sales ranks. In romance ebooks, it has ranked consistently in the top five, above the works of such authors as Nora Roberts, Jude Deveraux, and Laurell K. Hamilton. It has a solid hold on the number one spot among ebook short story collections and places daily among the top fifteen fiction ebooks.

So, to make a short story even shorter, this unknown writer became a bestselling ebook author in less than five months.

How could such a thing happen?

Lau's speedy success would have been impossible in the days before electronic publishing and the Internet. The efficiency of e-mail makes book submission and acceptance fast and easy. The low overhead of e-publishing, which requires no printing presses, no paper, and minimal outlays for marketing and distribution, allows publishing companies to take chances on new authors with little risk. Producing a quality ebook takes a fraction of the time of the printed equivalent. And websites like Amazon can bring a new author to the attention of millions of readers for little expense.

If a book is good and fills a niche, it can become a hit in the time it used to take an author to get a rejection slip. Back in 1980 Lau's first novel was under consideration by a single publisher for months-the editors loved it but ultimately rejected it due to distribution concerns. Needless to say, she is stunned at the rapid success of Soulful Sex. "I've always believed in my writing ability," Lau said, "but I also knew there were so many obstacles to breaking into print that I stood little chance of ever making it." While she saw e-publishing as an opportunity to find readers, she never imagined seeing her work among Amazon's 50 bestselling ebooks.

So what is the appeal of this particular book? Billed as "erotica with soul," Soulful Sex appeals to the reader who likes romance spicy but with a conscience. As one reader posting a review to the book's Amazon page put it: "The reader is not embarrassed by the sex as much as inspired by it. The noble intent of the writer is subliminal yet prominent. This is not sex for its own sake (to rouse the dormant housewife), but sex as the highest form of art and expression." The book's title no doubt catches the attention of a lot of Amazon shoppers. However, its elegant cover, blurb, and posted reviews appeal to a more specific market: those seeking a unique author who crafts sexy but literary fiction that can be enjoyed by erotica-phobes.

In the end everyone wins, thanks to the wonderful world of e-publishing. A frustrated author finds her audience; a publisher is rewarded for giving her a chance; and the reading public is offered some fresh fiction.

"I've been a big fan of computers and the internet from the beginning," said Lau, who promotes her works at www.dianalaurence.com. "Technology is great, but I never dreamed it would end up being the key to my writing success.

"I still find it hard to believe. But here's my book competing in sales with authors I've admired all my life. I'm just thankful to be writing in a time when I have this kind of opportunity."

Soulful Sex: Erotic Tales of Fantasy and Romance is now available directly from Living Beyond Reality Press online at www.livingbeyondreality.com. For more information visit www.dianalaurence.com.

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