Baen Books

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Baen Books is an American publishing company established in 1983 by SF publishing industry long-timer Jim Baen (1943–2006). It is a science fiction and fantasy publishing house that specializes in space opera/military science fiction and fantasy (though it does not restrict itself to these subgenres). Jim Baen was succeeded as publisher in 2006 by the appointment of long-time executive editor Toni Weisskopf.

Contents

[edit] Founding of Baen Books

Baen Books was founded in 1983 out of a negotiated agreement between Jim Baen and Simon & Schuster. Simon & Schuster was undergoing massive reorganization and wanted to hire Jim Baen to head up and revitalize their Science Fiction line in their Pocket Books division. Jim Baen, with financial backing from some friends, counter-offered with a proposal to start up a new company named Baen Books and provide Simon & Schuster with a SF line to distribute instead.[1]

[edit] The market for SF in America

In 2004, more than 2,500 titles in the genres of science fiction, fantasy and horror were published in the U.S. by 248 publishers. According to the "2004 Book Summary" (Locus February, 2005. Vol. 54. No. 2, 50/54), Baen Books was the ninth most active publisher in terms of most books published in the genres indicated, and the fifth most active publisher of the dedicated SF imprints, publishing a total of 67 titles (of which 40 were original titles). It is difficult to judge the issue of quality but, based on the number of times a title published by Baen Books appeared in the bestseller lists produced by the major bookselling chains, it is ranked the seventh most popular SF publisher. In 2005, (Locus February 2006, Vol.56, No.2, 50/53) Baen improved to eighth position in the total books published with 72 books published (of which 40 were original titles). It was the sixth most active publisher of the dedicated SF imprints, and the fifth most popular SF publisher based on the number of bestseller list appearances.

[edit] Baen Books Authors

Although Baen himself was politically conservative (which has led to friction with and departures by at least one liberal author), Baen Books has published works covering a broad spectrum of political philosophies.

Baen authors include:

[edit] Baen Books Series

the first of several planned Assiti Shards mechanism books, of which two others are in production or under contract

[edit] Electronic publishing strategy

Baen Books may justly claim an innovative approach to marketing through the internet on several levels. The most innovative aspects of Baen's electronic publishing policy are these:

  • all books are unencrypted -- not "protected" by DRM
  • all books are available in a variety of formats -- pick the format that suits you best
  • the books are priced reasonably -- at or under the cost of a paperback book
  • Baen also provide "its books to fans who are blind, paralysed, or dyslexic, or are amputees, in electronic form free of charge, effective immediately.", as announced at November 14, 2006 on his webscription portal.

All of these policies are in stark contrast to those of most other publishers who have entered the electronic publishing market in a half-hearted way. The response from the ebook-buying community has justified Jim Baen's faith in his patrons. Here are some of the specific projects introduced by Baen.

[edit] Free Sample Chapters

From the publication schedule on the main Baen web site, you can view sample chapters of many upcoming works. Other publishers have done this, typically making only the first chapter or two available. By contrast, Baen releases as much as one quarter of the book for free viewing.

[edit] Webscriptions

Baen was primarily a paperback publishing house until 1999, when Webscriptions was introduced. For a fee, a customer "subscribes" to the set of five or so novels published electronically in a given month. Four of the books are guaranteed to be new releases, any of the books over the guaranteed four may be repeats. These books are released to the user in advance of the publication month, according to the following schedule: 50% is released two months in advance, 75% is released one month in advance, then the entire book is released in the actual month of publication. The "subscription" aspect of the term "Webscription" refers to this serial manner of release. The user is not signed up to receive subsequent months automatically. You purchase only the monthly packages you are interested in. If you buy a month's package for some month in the past, all books in that package are immediately available to you. All months since the Webscription service started are available for purchase.

[edit] Baen Free Library

The Baen Free Library allows free access to dozens of titles (eighty-plus) from a list called a backlist determined by the works author. Usually these are the first book or two in a series. This strategy that has seen commercial success through much improved sales and author exposure as readers value being able to sample a text before buying it, and buy it they do, causing Baen sales to climb steadily. Unfortunately, at least one author has disagreed with the universally-applied electronic rights policy of Baen, under past contract restrictions, and as such removed backlist and any future books from the publisher.[citation needed]

[edit] E-ARC

In publishing, an ARC is an Advance Reader Copy (sometimes called "bound galleys"). These are short-run, printed (but not fully copyedited) editions of the book. These are usually handed out for promotional or review purposes. An E-ARC is the electronic equivalent -- not fully copyedited, but available well ahead of the formal release date. This, however, sells for a premium price. Premium, that is, compared to the other Baen ebooks -- the E-ARC price is comparable to that of a hardback book, which eager readers have been more than willing to pay in order to be the first to read the new material.

[edit] The Grantville Gazette

This came out of still yet other experiments with online publication in the successful mainly fan-fiction sub-series The Grantville Gazettes—which were so successful that the second and subsequent volumes are also published as hardcover editions (See: 1632 Editorial Board for detail).

[edit] Promotional CD-ROMs

Baen Books also binds CD-ROMs into some hardcover first printings (including best selling titles by David Weber, John Ringo, Eric Flint, David Drake, and Mercedes Lackey. These CD-ROMs commonly contain the complete series of novels preceding the printed book (for those books that were the latest in a series), other works by the same author, and works by other authors who have consented to be included. Some also contain mp3 songs or audiobook readings. The CD-ROMs are prominently labelled with a permissive copyright license and their rapid copying by peer-to-peer networks, and streaming via BitTorrent has represented significant free advertising for Baen authors and increased sales of their backlist titles.

[edit] Jim Baen's Universe

Baen's latest endeavor in electronic publishing is Baen's Universe, an anthology magazine published entirely on-line. As with all other Baen electronic material, it is unencrypted and downloadable in a variety of formats. The content of an issue of Baen's Universe is roughly 120,000 words (some earlier issues are more). This is approximately 50% larger than the average paper science fiction & fantasy magazine.

[edit] Baen's Bar

Baen's Bar
Baen's Bar
Previous style for Baen's Bar
Previous style for Baen's Bar

Baen Books also hosts a large online community, in which the publisher, authors, and many readers take part via Baen's Bar, an internet forum with personal forums (sub-forums) for the late publisher, the chief editor, and many authors in the Baen stable of writers.

Baen's Bar is an online community created around Baen Books' message board (originally BBS).

It has survived numerous crashes and the critical illness of Baen's original main webmaster. There are five ways of accessing it: via e-mail, via two separate NNTP (newsgroup) interfaces, and via two different website interfaces using the WebBoard software package from the Akiva Corporation—"Old style" (in use since at least 1997) and the default "New style" (in use since 2003).

The Bar's internal NNTP interface may be accessed by newsreader via bar.baen.com, using the same login ID and password one uses to access the bar's web interface. However, since it is only an interface to a non-NNTP bulletin board system, this is somewhat slow and may deliver incorrect article counts. A much faster NNTP mirror has been set up at news.sector14.net; this does not require use of the bar's userID and password to read; however, to post articles one must be a registered member of the Bar and be posting from the same e-mail address with which one subscribed.

Forum regulars include a number of New York Times bestselling writers (including David Weber, Eric Flint, and John Ringo), other writers who publish through Baen, founder/co-owner/CEO Jim Baen, various employees, and a growing number of readers. Members of this community are referred to as barflies.

The bar is divided into several sections—some for administrivia, but most concerning specific authors and their fictional universes. Popular forums include Flint's 1632 Tech Manual, Ringo's Ringo's Tavern, Weber's Honorverse and Sarah Hoyt's Diner.

[edit] External links

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