Deliberately bad? Perhaps. They're outlines, for heaven's sake: not a novel, the blueprint for one. They're where I find out if a particular plot arc is going anywhere, or if a character works. And where else could I write the scene where Harry Houdini escapes from a milk can full of maple syrup? It was fun to write, even if it never appeared anywhere. "Fun" is a big part of the experience for me.
(Our short story, "Nobody Has To Know," incidentally, is an unedited chunk of one of my outlines. My coauthor took it, added linebreaks, and submitted it. It was published in
Vampires, Jane Yolen, ed.)
Ken: what went before might have been fascinating in its own right, but It Isn't Part Of This Story.
The Mystery of the Flying Express was worth a novel of its own, but it isn't part of
The Clue of the Broken Blade, and is disposed of in a single sentence in the latter work.
BTW, for everyone: Leigh Grossman (author, editor, packager) is writing a series of posts elsewhere on the web on How Publishing Works. The latest episode is on Agents, and it's here:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/8/7/122232/1998
(Leigh has the good sense to quote me several places in his series.)