Web-Savvy Authors Reap Fame,

Sramana Mitra writing in Forbes magazine

To say that Elle Newmark has had an interesting year would be an understatement.
Newmark is a former advertising professional whose real passion is writing. She went through four different agents in New York over four separate book projects but never really got where she wanted to go.
At 56, she said, "I don't have time for this anymore," and self-published her new book, a historical fiction tome, through print-on-demand provider iUniverse last year.

But getting a book out in print is only 5% of the battle--getting it read is a whole different ballgame. So Newmark looked to the Internet to build a readership. She decided to throw a virtual book launch party and sent out 500,000 e-mail invites to agents, editors and reviewers. It worked: Her book became a best-seller on Amazon.com the day of the virtual book party.

Newmark's Internet marketing savvy wound up getting her a William Morris agent and a contract with Simon & Schuster within two weeks of the virtual book party. Her book, a historical thriller set in Venice during the Italian Renaissance titled The Books of Unholy Mischief, is due out Dec. 30 and William Morris has also sold a dozen international rights to it.

For the full story go to Forbes onilne.