Free Short Stories on my Blog

I've been throwing around the idea of publishing free short stories here on my blog from time to time.  I'm still not sure if I will or not, because I just can't see giving my fiction away for free, or being the judge of whether my work is good enough to publish.  Several writers I know are doing, or have done, free serials on their websites, and there has been some success with getting those serials published, but I wanted to do something a little different.  The serial idea is interesting, but I couldn't write chapter to chapter with any sense of cohesion.  The way I write, four chapters in there would be a lot of information that would have to be deleted or added to the first chapters.  When I write larger works, the beginning and end are two different things and require a lot of re-writing to bring the story together.

I can count out doing a serial, but I like the idea of using my blog as a platform to introduce readers to my work.  With my debut novel coming out soon as well as a novella, I think providing some free fiction could help encourage uncertain readers to give my longer works a shot. 

Also, I have several stories that I just can't find the right publisher for.  Stories that just don't seem to fit any of the guidelines.  That doesn't mean there isn't a publisher out there for them that I have yet to discover, but I wonder if I should just publish some of these stories here.

Still arguing with myself about it.  I may just send some of these stories to decent e-zines, that way I won't be judging my own work and the stories will still be free to read if they are accepted, though I do see myself publishing one here and there, so look for them.  I just don't want to go overboard and give too much of my fiction away for free.  Not that I would start selling my stories on smashwords or something -- I'm not established enough to do that!  It's just knowing that once a story is published, no matter where it's published, it's a reprint, and thus it's value is depreciated.  That's my greatest struggle with the decision to publish a story or two here on my blog.

But, I have a lot of stories to choose from, so expect something in the near future.