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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 emphasizes space opera, hard science fiction, 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.

Baen Books logo

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 an SF line to distribute instead.[1]

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.

Baen Books Authors

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

Baen authors include:

Baen Books Series

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

Electronic publishing strategy

In recent years, Baen has emphasized electronic publishing and Internet-focused promotions for its publications. Baen's electronic strategy emphasizes distribution of unencrypted digital versions of its works free of Digital Rights Management copy protection schemes. Baen also makes its entire catalog available in multiple formats for downloading and typically prices electronic versions of its books at or below that of paperback editions.

Other electronic marketing tactics Baen employs include distributing e-book versions of advance reader copys at premium prices, the use of promotional CD-ROMs with permissive copyright licenses, and publication of an e-magazine anthology entitled The Grantville Gazette. Serials of this anthology have also been released in print editions subsequent to the electronic versions. In contrast, the anthology Baen's Universe is available only on-line. At approximately 120,000 words, this latter publication is unusually large when compared to most tradtional print editions of science fiction magazines.

In 1999, Baen launched it's "Webscriptions" service, which provides subscribers with monthly electronic releases from Baen's catalog. Because Baen subsequently maintains these electronically released publications on it's Web site for purchase, the publishing house has been able to make midlist titles available to readers long after they would typically have gone out of print under tradtional publishing practices. Wired magazine has described Baen's Webscriptions service as "innovative".[2]

Baen has made liberal use of free content in its marketing efforts. For example, free sample chapters of its books are typically available on the Baen Web site. The "Baen Free Library" allows free access to dozens of titles from the company's backlist, often the first book published in a series by a Baen author. Baen also provides free electronic copys of its books to readers who are blind, paralyzed, dyslexic, or are amputees.

Finally, the company has invested resources in "Baen's Bar", it's online community service that provides a forum for customers, authors and editors to interact.

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