A budding author found a novel way to get his first book noticed by turning it into a message in a bottle.

Mark Templeton, 33, of Palmeira Avenue, Hove, penned his first manuscript Soundtrack To A Dream but was not having any success getting it on to the shelves.

So he popped the synopsis and a message into a plastic squash bottle and threw it into the sea.

Only six days later his novel was found by a Dutch couple washed up on a beach near Calais, France.

Mr Templeton said: "I had had a few rejections from publishers and agents and I thought it was a bit of a lottery to get noticed, no more of a lottery than chucking a bottle into the sea.

"So I decided to put an outline of the book with a message into a bottle and see what happened.

I threw it from the end of a fishing platform in the sea near the King Alfred Centre in Hove.

"I was also interested to see what would happen from an experimental point of view.

"I thought it was more likely that I would not get a response but thought if I did it would be about a year later.

"I was really shocked when I got an email from a Dutch couple who said they had found the bottle only six days after I had thrown it in the sea.

"It was actually a quicker response than I have ever had from a publisher or agent."

Mr Templeton's message in a bottle read: "Congratulations, stranger, on finding this bottle and having the curiosity to open it. And if you happen to be French flicitations this bottle may well have travelled a long way then!

"However, sorry to disappoint, there is no secret map of buried treasure lurking within. Nor will rubbing the bottle bring you the attentions of some wish-granting genie. What you will find is an outline for a novel my novel, Soundtrack To A Dream.

"Now, I reckon the odds on you being a publisher or literary agent are rather slim. Whatever, it would be interesting to hear from you and, at the least, see what you think of this unorthodox way of spreading the word about my novel."

The response from Peter Bouw and Mieke Leerschool read: "On Thursday, March 9, we were on the beach of Cap Blanc Nez, south of Calais in France. We were there to collect fossils!

"We found your bottle in the middle of the big low-tide sandy beach. I picked it up and said to my husband 'I found a message in a bottle'! We put the bottle in our backpack. Later we opened the bottle and read your message in our hotel room.

"We are no publishers and are not really interested in your novel. But the experiment is really very original and, you see, the bottle is found."

The novel is about music, ambition and dreams.

Anyone interested in helping Mark publish his novel should contact him on 01273 734077 or email mark.templeton@tiscali.co.uk