A man who decided to write a novel after a life-changing health scare has come up with a DIY internet publishing concept.

For the last 15 years of his career, Jeff Clark-Meads was a successful writer and news editor in the national music press.

Then he was diagnosed with bleeding in the brain and he knew his life would not be the same again.

He left his London job and home and moved permanently to Brighton to devote himself to his novel, The Plowman and the Rose.

He said: "For 19 days I did not know whether I was going to live or die and that opens you to some new perceptions.

"I learned a lot and decided from then on I was going to concentrate on doing the things I wanted to do."

Mr Clark-Meads spent the summer writing his novel on a laptop sitting on Brighton beach and then set about the task of finding a publisher.

He said: "A couple of them were very interested but they were talking about publishing it a year from now. I was very disappointed."

But thanks to a web-designer friend, Esther Kissling, the idea of publishing it over the internet was born.

Mr Clark-Meads decided to follow in the footsteps of the famous horror writer Stephen King, who published his 66-page story, Riding the Bullet, on the web in March.

First Mr Clark-Meads had to register the name of his website, which cost £50. Then he set up a payment system provided by World Pay, at £125 a year plus a percentage of sales.

All that remained was to design the site and upload the text. The whole process took six weeks.

He said: "One advantage is speed. The other is control. Everything which has been done has been my own decision.

"The third advantage is money. There is no publisher taking a cut. There is no middle man - that is what I love about the internet."

The first thing visitors to the site will see is a synopsis of the novel, similar to the blurb on the back of a normal book.

They can download the first two chapters for free. If they are hooked, they can pay to order the whole book, which will be sent to them by e-mail.

Mr Clark-Meads is reluctant to give too much of his plot away but describes it as "multi-levelled".

He said: "It is a revelation of the truth about the way the world works. It's also an astonishing adventure story."

Mr Clark-Meads believes the mainstream publishing industry will have to adapt to this new internet trend if it is to survive.

www.plowmanrose.com