I’ve taken the plunge. At 75, it seems unlikely I’ll suddenly be discovered as a New Thing by the dwindling number of established publishers, book or periodical, who handle short fiction. Accordingly, although many publishers avoid works that are “already published,” I’ve decided to post all my (readable) stories online, for anyone to read, for free.
I’m probably shooting myself in the foot by doing this, and it’s no way to make money, but who’s making money writing short stories, anyway? A couple of dozen full-time authors, almost all of whom write novels, too. Agents and publishers just don’t expect any profit from selling one author’s story collections — especially if there aren’t any novels to fill out the product line. I don’t write stories as a product line, and I’ve only written one short novel, so I’ll have to live with that.
Hey, I did include a PayPal donation button on the new site, so it’s always possible some generous and appreciative reader might send money for no tangible reason. And of course some fiction editor from a great periodical or anthology might stumble onto the site and become a sudden fan. … Yeah, right.
So there you have it. If you like free short stories, in a wide variety of subject, style, and length, check out Cave-Paintings.com. There are about 60 stories now, and they’re all narrated in case you don’t feel like reading. Or if you want to listen in your car, you can right-click the MP3 player under each story for a download option. Eventually there will be some essays, too, and visual art, sound compositions, videos, etc.