[Libs-Or] Baen Re: HarperCollins-a different approach

[Marta Murvosh]

I heard Jim Baen speak at Norwescon (a regional science fiction convention held annually in the Seattle area) in 2004, a couple of years before he died. 

One of the reasons that Baen was able to conceive and use his relatively unique electronic library (other e-publishers now offer freebies, too) was because Baen had his own publishing house. If I'm remembering correctly, he told the audience that his contracts with larger publishers were written to give him more control over his product. In other words, if he came to a parting of the ways with the larger publisher, he walked with everything, including his inventory. 

This put him (and now his heirs) in a better bargaining position than some of the other privately held SF publishing houses. As a privately held company, Jim Baen also didn't have to answer to Wall Street investors during the three years before the free library began to show a positive impact on the hardcopy end of the his business. 

Another SF publisher Tor offers short stories online and in some electronic formats for free. They can be printed and have podcasts. A number can be downloaded to e-readers. 

Here's humorous (depending on how you look at it) problem that e-books can have. 

Ken Scholes, who is published by Tor, had one of his chapters go missing in the Kindle editions of one of his novels. It was replaced by a chapter from one of Lisa Desrochers' books (published by Tor Teen). So the two of them collaborated on a short story about what would happen if their characters met. (Ken lives in Portland.)

Here's the link: http://www.tor.com/stories/2010/09/intersections-and-interlopers It makes more sense if you've read Ken's series. 

Marta Murvosh

--- On Tue, 3/8/11, Linda Weight <LWEIGHT at siuslaw.lib.or.us> wrote:

From: Linda Weight <LWEIGHT at siuslaw.lib.or.us>
Subject: Re: [Libs-Or] HarperCollins-a different approach
To: libs-or at listsmart.osl.state.or.us
Date: Tuesday, March 8, 2011, 2:49 PM

There is at least one publisher, Baen Books, that appears to have a
different philosopy about ebooks.  Look at the Baen Books Free Library
page:  http://www.baen.com/library/  to read author Eric Flint's essay
about free access to ebooks.  They have apparently been doing this since
at least 2000, in a very low-key manner.

Many, although not all of the Baen authors have some of their titles
available in the Baen Free Library, including David Weber, Mercedes
Lackey, David Drake, Lois McMaster Bujold, and of course, Eric Flint.  

On the Baen WebSubscriptions site, they also say, "Since 1999, Baen has
published its new books as ebooks each month, in several formats, with
no Digital Rights Management, through WebScriptions
(www.webscriptions.net), for a small fee. Now, this service will be
available at no cost to the disabled, who must apply for this
privilege."

Formats include ePub/Nook/Stanza, Mobi/Kindle/Palm,  Sony LRF,
Rocketbook, RTF and MSReader.   

Of course Baen also sells ebooks, and says that they generally only
make the first few in a series available for free in the hopes that
readers will like the books enough to purchase the rest.  It doesn't
look like this business model has hurt Baen.  

How appropriate that a publisher of science fiction (and fantasy)
should be so forward-thinking.  








Linda Weight
Librarian I
Siuslaw Public Library District
1460 Ninth Street
Florence, Or. 97439
1-541-997-3132
lweight at siuslaw.lib.or.us

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