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One morning while driving into work I started thinking about short stories.  The Based Book Sale is running a sale on short stories and short story collections this week.  My book The One-Minute Mysteries of Inspector Gerard: The Ultimate Flatfoot is one of the collections in the sale, and I’ve purchased a couple of works from other authors (and will likely buy more).  $0.99 for a Kindle eBook is excellent.

Here’s the problem:  I don’t like reading anything over about 2000 words on a screen.  I will, but if I have the option to purchase a $10 paperback over an eBook, I almost always will, unless the work is fairly short and I can read it on the toilet (lol).  I don’t have a Kindle device, which might make the reading experience more pleasant, but I suspect I am a physical media man when it comes to long-form writing (a bit of an irony, considering I write almost exclusively for an online audience).

That got me thinking:  what if I created a fifty-page monthly fiction magazine in the spirit of the old pulps?  Something about 4″x6″ that could be carried in a bag or a large pocket, packed with short stories of various genres from up-and-coming authors?

Further, what if I paid those authors decent money, not just “exposure”—$50 at least per story, and preferably $100.  I could always toss in some stories of my own to keep my costs down, and it would be printed very cheaply on pulp-grade paper, probably entirely in black and white.  I’d commission artists to design the covers, which would be eye-catching (and possibly in color).  Then I’d mail copies to paid subscribers and distribute others through independent bookstores, comic bookstores, etc., on a consignment basis.

I asked Microsoft’s AI, CoPilot, how feasible it would be, and its answer surprised me.

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