AOL Time Warner's book-publishing division on Monday introduced iPublish, a Web site bent on finding the next bestseller in a sea of manuscripts.

iPublish is both an early effort by a large book publisher to use the Internet to expand its talent pool and also AOL Time Warner's initial step into the market for digital book distribution.

The company is not alone in testing online publishing. Other booksellers and book publishers including Barnes&Noble.com, Viacom's Simon & Schuster and Bertelsmann's Random House have begun exploring the Internet for ways to enhance their publishing businesses.

The primary service on iPublish is called iWrite, which enlists aspiring authors to sift through the work of their fellow hopefuls. To have works accepted onto iWrite, a candidate first must review at least three excerpts by other authors. The candidate's own excerpt can then be posted. If it garners sufficient praise, iPublish then may publish the entire manuscript as an e-book or let online readers print the work.

Submissions also have the chance to become published through Time Warner Trade Publishing, AOL Time Warner's nationwide book-publishing arm.

"By placing priority on merit rather than connections, we will be able to give the best writers the attention they deserve," Greg Voynow, senior vice president and general manager of iPublish.com, said in a statement.

Aside from the section for unpublished writers, the site will feature works from current Time Warner writers that people can purchase for download or print. Authors in the iRead section include Nelson DeMille, James Patterson, Nicholas Sparks, David Baldacci, Michael Connelly, Brad Meltzer, Anita Shreve and Sandra Brown.

iPublish announced in August that it would use Adobe eBook Reader, Gemstar's Rocket eBook, Glassbook and Microsoft Reader to distribute its electronic books. Many of these electronic publications will be available through e-commerce partners including Barnes&Noble.com, Amazon.com, Palm eBookstore, Borders and Contentville.