Jenks lets you read about half of the story and then asks for money. Mind's Eye Fiction is Houstonian Jenks' innovative way of selling short stories on the Internet. It's attracted thousands of visitors, some well-known contributors but not a whole lot of cash since it first appeared on the Internet in February. I am not planning on making a profit on this for the first two years. Mind's Eye is one of a growing number of Web sites that sell fiction to Internet users with varying degrees of success.
Most content is free on the Web, subsidized by advertising.
Paying attention is the coin of the realm on the Internet. Jenks, a federal government worker who prefers not to be specific about just what it is he does, said he came up with his method of getting people to pay as a way to avoid having ads on his site. It's a concept similar to shareware, a method of distribution of software. With shareware, a user tries a copy of a computer program and buys it only if he or she likes it. Shareware cuts out the middleman, reducing the cost of the product.