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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).
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 published of the dedicated SF imprints, and the fifth most popular SF publisher based on the number of bestseller list appearances.
Baen Books Authors
Although Baen himself was politically conservative (which has led to friction with and departures by at least one liberal author), he published works covering a broad spectrum of political philosophies.
Baen authors include:
- Robert Asprin
- Lois McMaster Bujold
- Paul Chafe
- C. J. Cherryh
- David Drake
- Eric Flint
- Esther Friesner
- Robert A. Heinlein
- Mercedes Lackey
- Larry Niven
- John Ringo
- Spider Robinson
- David Weber
- Michael Z. Williamson
Baen Books Series
- The Man-Kzin Wars An shared universe based on the Kzinti Conflicts in Larry Niven's Known Space universe, featuring a galaxy of top writers personally selected by Niven
- 1632 series, very popular rapidly expanding 1632verse multiverse,
- the first of several planned Assiti Shards mechanism books, of which two others are in production or under contract
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. 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.
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-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.
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 for the publisher and many authors.
External links
"Baen Books"