Wallace Lee knew he didn’t stand a chance at winning the online modelling competition, but he was desperate for publicity.

He had been writing novels for years, the costs associated with self-publishing were high — and his books were not selling.

The 34-year-old kitchen porter decided it was time to “pimp” himself out.

Despite never having modelled before, he entered a competition by international clothing store OnePiece in the hopes it would help promote him, and ultimately his books.

“Self-publishing is free, but buying your own books to sell is where it gets expensive — and shipping them to Bermuda,” he said.

“My goal was to convince people to order my books themselves, to buy them online. Every media outlet is a way to get visibility.”

The company promised to select the next OnePiece model based on the number of likes their picture received over three weeks ending August 31.

Mr Lee used his blog, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter to draw attention to his images, all of which he submitted using his middle names, Samuel Alexander. His highest ranked picture received 155 likes.

The OnePiece winner got just over 21,000.

“I got into writing by accident,” Mr Lee said. “I was a lazy college student and spent my free time writing fiction and playing video games rather than doing my school work.”

He eventually completed a book, and then another. Before he knew it he was up to five, none of them best-sellers.

The genres ranged from urban fantasy to psychological thriller.

“People found my writing funny in a way I didn’t mean for it to be,” he said. “My fourth book was actually good but it still didn’t do well.

“I’ve now written six in total, I just published another three months ago.”

The loss has not soured his love of writing. A new book is already in the works.

“I’ll probably write my new book and keep pushing [my most recent one] online,” he said. “The reality is I don’t have the bankroll to keep ordering books and I’ve ultimately decided that if I can’t convince people to just walk in a book store and order it, or download it to their Kindle or reading device, I’m perfectly okay with not selling a book.

“Friends and family, they will almost always get me to order one. But beyond that it just doesn’t serve my future goal of being a full-time writer.

“I have so many book ideas in my head, even if I never sell another book I’ll be busy forever. I’ll just write my way to happy. And if I get a chance to do it as my day job that will just be an added bonus.”