We present a new empirical method for fitting multicolor light curves of Type Ia supernovae .
Our method combines elements from two widely used techniques in the literature : the \Delta m _ { 15 } template fitting method ( 50 ) and the Multicolor Light-Curve Shape method ( MLCS ; 54 ) .
An advantage of our technique is the ease of adding new colors , templates , or parameters to the fitting procedure .
We use a large sample of published light curves to calibrate the relations between the absolute magnitudes at maximum and the post-maximum decline rate \Delta { m } _ { 15 } in BVRI filters .
If we perform a cut in reddening and compare an unreddened with a reddened sample , we find that the two samples produce relations which are marginally consistent with each other .
We find that individual subsamples from a given survey or publication have significantly tighter relationships between light curve shape and luminosity than the relationship derived from the sum of all the samples , pointing to uncorrected systematic errors in the photometry , mainly in BV filters .
Using our method , we calculate luminosity distances and host galaxy reddening to 89 SNe in the Hubble flow and construct a low- z Hubble diagram .
The dispersion of the SNe in the Hubble diagram is \sigma = 0.20 mag , or an error of \sim 9 \% in distance to a single SN .
Our technique produces similar or smaller dispersion in the low- z Hubble diagram than other techniques in the literature .