Kochi, June 23 (IANS): A start-up project of four youths from Kerala is all set to give amateur writers a new format wherein their works can be published free of cost in digital format and also earn them royalty.

www.valmeeki.com caters exclusively for first-time writers and self-published authors in English and Malayalam. Stories, poems, novellas, movie scripts, graphic novels, or student theses can be published online in a digital book format within hours.

Kuruvilla Chacko, the team leader of Valmeeki.com said they also offer a royalty of around 60 percent for the books sold online.

"Writings can be uploaded either in MS Word or PageMaker for text and in JPEG format for illustration content and those who lack typing skills can send in their manuscripts as well. Valmeeki vouches the book to be ready for sale online after the necessary editing in just 72 hours," he said.

Chacko said Valmeeki solely encourages books with 20-70 pages as "large volumes will not be popular with mobile phone readers" and larger books can be published in installments.

The published books are made available online as well as on smart phone/tablet-based applications from where readers can download, read and save the e-books. Presently, 28 books are available on the site.

Valmeeki, which targets publication of 500 books in 45 days and 1,500 books within the next nine months, also plans to publish in Tamil and Hindi soon.