There has been a mutually vitalizing relationship between genre fiction and the periodical press stretching back as far as the emergence of mass-market magazines (which, in the United States, can be dated to the mid nineteenth century). The examples showcased here from the American periodical press exemplify the capacious nature of mass-market writing, usually fulfilling generic conventions but occasionally offering inventive and well-crafted departures from strictly generic styles. These are the kind of genre-fiction texts which writer guides and devices, explored in the last three cases, were aimed at helping generate.