Baen Books
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Baen Books is an American publishing company established in 1983 by SF publishing industry long-timer Jim Baen. It is a science fiction and fantasy publishing house that specializes in political and military science fiction and fantasy (though it does not restrict itself to these subgenres).
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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 the 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.
Which authors does Baen Books publish?
Baen authors include David Weber, John Ringo, Eric Flint, David Drake, Lois McMaster Bujold, Elizabeth Moon, Mercedes Lackey, Larry Niven, Robert Asprin, Spider Robinson, Robert Heinlein, and Esther Friesner. Although Baen himself is politically conservative (which has led to friction with and departures by at least one liberal author), he publishes works covering a broad spectrum of political philosophies.
Electronic publishing strategy
Baen Books may justly claim an innovative approach to marketing through the internet. It was primarily a paperback publishing house until 1999, when Webscriptions was introduced. For a monthly fee, a customer "subscribes" to the set of all novels published in a given month. For three months before hard-copy publication, a serialized version of each title is available as an e-book in unencrypted format. The Baen Free Library allows free access to several dozen titles from the backlist, a strategy that has seen commercial success through improved sales — readers value being able to sample a text before buying it.
Baen Books also binds CD-ROMs into some hardcover first printings (including titles by David Weber, John Ringo, David Drake, and Mercedes Lackey and Roberta Gellis). These CD-Rs 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-Rs 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.
Baen Books also hosts a large online community in which the publisher, authors, and many readers take part via Baen's Bar, a message board with personal forums for the publisher and each author.
External links
- Baen Books (http://www.baen.com)
- New York Times article (http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/19/technology/19BAEN.html)