WRITERS USE NOVEL METHOD TO PITCH FICTION ON WEB.(BUSINESS)

         Twenty-five short stories are available for perusing at his Mind's Eye Fiction site on the World Wide Web. Just click on a title and start reading. 
But there's a catch. Just as the tale is getting good, you'll have to pay. Jenks lets you read about half of the story and then asks for money. 
         Mind's Eye Fiction is Jenks' way of selling short stories on the Internet. The site has attracted thousands of visitors but not a whole lot of cash since it first appeared on the Internet in February. 
``We have about a 20-to-1 ratio of lookers to buyers,'' Jenks said. ``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. Although the Web - the graphical part of the Internet that has exploded in size and popularity - is considered a publishing medium, sales of fiction have not done well on it for a variety of reasons: 
         The methods for handling on-line transactions are clunky at best and insecure at worst. As a result, potential buyers are put off by the fact that they either must send a credit card number over the Internet or pay money for an electronic commerce account. 
         Reading long works, such as a novel, is more tiring on a computer. 
         Copyright issues concern many writers and publishers, who worry about the ease with which someone can duplicate an electronic work. 
         Internet culture has an aversion to paying for content. Most content is free on the Web and subsidized by advertising. 
         Jenks, a federal government worker in Houston 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 distributing 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. 
         At Mind's Eye, Jenks' customers choose from stories by both known and unknown authors. Jenks winnows stories just as any publisher would, turning some writers down and posting others' work on the site at http://www.tale.com/. 
         Stories are priced between 50 cents and $1. To buy a story, though, a visitor to Mind's Eye must have an account with First Virtual, an electronic commerce system. Buyers enter a personal identification number into Mind's Eye's purchase forms, and then confirm the buy via e-mail. 
         But the vast majority of World Wide Web surfers don't have a First Virtual account, dramatically cutting down on the number of people who could buy a story from Mind's Eye. 
         First Virtual, based in San Diego, takes 30 cents out of every 50-cent transaction, and 31 cents from a $1 transaction. By the time Mind's Eye and the tax man take their cut, an author gets 12 cents for a 50-cent transaction and 46 cents for a $1 transaction. 
         Jenks said he's not making a profit. But his costs are minimal. He estimated that he has spent only about $400 getting Mind's Eye Fiction up and running. 
         Despite these low numbers, Jenks and other operators of for-pay fiction sites have been able to draw some big-name writers who are interested in being part of an experiment.