Mick and Casey Mystery Stories has a long way to go. (I got big plans, I tell ya.) Right now, the focus is on Free Stories. Well, a few free stories anyway. At the moment I have a few reprints of my published mystery fiction. There will be more trickling in this fall, and some original fiction written just for this site.
Ten years ago, I despaired of the publishing world. The midlist – that part of publishing where all those great series mysteries reside – was dying a horrible death. Many writers of my favorite blossoming series were giving up, because the pay was so low, and distribution was drying up because Barnes and Noble, and other large chains, wanted only best sellers or very cheap brand new writers they could treat like canon fodder.
As for the short mystery fiction market, it had long dried up. Newspapers and general interest magazines, which were once prime territory for suspense and puzzler stories, had stopped publishing fiction at all. Our two major magazines – Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock – are not really major magazines in the industry overall, and they are dependant on advertising by publishers, and thus put a lot of emphasis on publishing stories by the novelists being advertised. Yes, they do what they can to foster new voices, but the market is too limited, and publishing is in no economic shape for them to be too generous.
But even as I was leaving fiction writing behind (I went off to do screenwriting and playwrighting and blogging) I could see the start of the next wave of great publishing – free stories on the web! Small presses were popping up everywhere, and thanks to the Short Mystery Fiction Society, they could find each other and their audience. It was even then possible to find ripping mystery stories on the web – many rough around the edges, but also some polished work. New voices and old. Free stories online for the reader, an advertising venue for publishers. It was far from well established, and most of the small presses were still somewhat dependant on paper editions – which was expensive and labor intensive, and many of those little magazines just couldn’t make it.
But there was hope. And now I see established authors beginning to treat the web as a kind of small press house. A place to publish free short stories to please their readers, or to sell that novel that isn’t quite right for their regular publisher. eBooks are going mainstream, and some writers are even producing serialized fiction again. Just like the Golden Age of magazine publishing!
Most of this is happening in the Science Fiction world, but I see it slipping into the mainstream. And I have to say this is just what I have been hoping for in mystery fiction. Because mystery readers are the most loyal of readers. We love characters and we love authors, and all we ask are two things – a chance to try new series now and then, and once we love a series, we don’t want it taken away from us by the business model chosen by modern booksellers and publishers.
When we use the model of providing free stories online, we support both sides of the equation. Readers can find and try out new characters, and once they love those characters they can keep in touch with the series. And on the other end, the author has a venue to keep the series flowing, even as the publishing industry ebbs and flows.
Right now, the free stories I offer here will be my own. This blog will be about all mysteries, and westerns and adventures. I’ll have reviews and provide links to other mystery fiction sites. I hope that you will like the free stories offered here, and I especially hope to provide you with more – some free, some for purchase.
