A Universe of Stories

Memorializing JIM BAEN

walt — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 01:06:46 +0000

Dave Drake and Toni Weisskopf have asked that in lieu of other remembrances, you go out and buy a copy of The World Turned Upside Down and donate it to your local library in his memory.

Remembrances of Jim’s life will be held at Trinoc*Con in Raleigh, NC Saturday, July 22 and Lacon IV, the Worldcon, in Los Angeles, CA in August.

The surviving partners of Baen and his heirs intend to continue Jim’s legacy of innovative, independent publishing. Longtime Baen Books executive editor Toni Weisskopf will be acting publisher and will direct day-to-day operation of the company.

In addition, attention will be paid at the Jim Baen’s Universe Universe Club Gathering at CONvergence in Minneapolis, MN July 7-9. If you plan to be there, please join Eric Flint, David Weber, Paula Goodlett, Rick Boatright and myself in the Universe Club Suite so we can hoist a glass in Jim’s memory.

Jim Baen–1943-2006

walt — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 16:42:57 +0000

The Great Editor Passes

Revolutionary editor and publisher, and leading anti-DRM fighter dies at 62.

James Patrick Baen, one of the greatest editors of science fiction and fantasy ever, and the acknowledged leader in publishing of electronic books and magazines without DRM, passed away with dignity last night at about 5 PM. Jim had suffered a major stroke on June 12, and had been in a coma since.

David Drake, perhaps Baen’s best friend, has posted a superb eulogy at David-Drake.com. “Jim Baen called me on the afternoon of June 11. He generally phoned on weekends, and we’d usually talk a couple more times in the course of a week; but this was the last time. In the course of the conversation he said, “You’ve got to write my obituary, you know.” I laughed (I’ll get to that) and said, ‘Sure, if I’m around–but remember, I’m the one who rides the motorcycle.’ So I’m writing this.”

Baen was, as Drake says, “always his own man, always a maverick, and very often brilliantly successful because he didn’t listen to what other people thought.”

“For example,” Drake went on, “the traditional model of electronic publishing required that the works be encrypted. Jim thought that just made it hard for people to read books, the worst mistake a publisher could make. His e-texts were clear and in a variety of common formats.” Baen’s unencrypted ebooks, published with no DRM whatsoever, are available at Webscriptions.

Baen also thought that the fact that modern book distribution was killing the chances of new authors to get published, and more established midlist authors to keep their books in print. With bestselling author, Eric Flint, another of his discoveries, he founded the Baen Free Library, and later went on to found the incredibly successful magazine, Jim Baen’s Universe published both online and in downloadable formats, as well as in a physical edition in an unencrypted CD format.

With his discoveries of star writers like Elizabeth Moon, Lois McMaster Bujold, Eric Flint, David Weber, John Ringo, and David Drake himself, Baen was remarkably successful in finding new talent before other editors recognized it. From Drake: “When in later years I thanked him for retrieving the first two Hammer stories, Jim responded, ‘’Oh, David—Jake (Ejler Jakobsen) rejected much better stories than yours!” (Among them was Ursula K LeGuin’s Nebula winner, The Day Before the Revolution.)”

How successful was he at his latest venture, publishing his entire list unencrypted? Drake again: “While e-publishing has been a costly waste of effort for others, Baen Books quickly began earning more from electronic sales than it did from Canada ($6,000/month). By the time of Jim’s death, the figure had risen to ten times that.” And that doesn’t include Jim Baen’s Universe, itself a successful venture under the direction of editor Eric Flint, nor does it include the free “book-crack” Baen purveyed by putting out a series of CDs with his entire backlist on them, tucked inside his string of best selling books.

Baen’s legacy will live on, and not only in the publishing house he founded, and the magazine that bears his name. One of the last things JIm Baen did in his life was approve using the Baen Free Library as the seed stock for creating a general online library for science fiction and fantasy. Later this year, a new library will be launched under the name of “The Science Fiction Public Library,” which will expand the mission of the Baen Free Library, and ReadAssist.org, to the entire field, and, hopefully, all publishers.

Dave Drake sums up, “I could not get so crazy and depressed that I didn’t trust Jim Baen to stand by me if I needed him. I don’t know a better statement than that to sum up what was important about Jim, as a man and as a friend.”

Condolences may be left in the Waiting Room conference on Baen’s Bar.

–The Staff of Jim Baen’s Universe

Jim Baen passes away.

rick — Thu, 29 Jun 2006 15:27:57 +0000

There is very little I can say that David Drake didn’t say better already.

Jim passed away around 5PM Wednesday, June 28, 2006.

http://david-drake.com/baen.html

We’re going to carry on.

News and notes - June 2006

editors — Sat, 24 Jun 2006 13:55:22 +0000

By now, everyone assiciated with Baen authors is doubtless aware that Jim Baen has suffered a stroke, and is in a coma. For information available, you should visit Baen’s Bar at http://bar.baen.com and go to the waiting-romm conference.

In other news:

Universe V1N1 is complete, and up on-line.
Download versions are up, although subject to revision.
V1N2 is nearly complete with only a few stories in final copyedit
Universe club members now have access to ALL issues through V1n6
Grantville Gazette 8 has been turned into webscriptions and the 8/9/10 bundle should go on sale “very soon.”
GG9 is in early pre-production
Up-coming conventions — Convergence, Conestoga, Minicon 5 — please check 1632.org for details on that.

and, of course, your thoughts or prayers for Jim and his family and co-workers are appriciated.

–Loyal Minions

eARC access

rick — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 03:14:16 +0000

The eARC access for Universe Club members has just been SUBSTANTIALLY upgraded.

Really. Lots. You should go loook.

http://www.baens-universe.com/e-arc

-_ Rick

More DRM nonsense

rick — Wed, 31 May 2006 14:30:06 +0000

You should read Eric’s first column on our position re DRM, but sometimes a real-world example of the evilness works better. So….

Another real world example of why DRM is evil by ZDNet’s David Berlind — One of the lesser discussed but equally troubling evils of digital rights management technology is what I call the “DRM switcheroo.” The DRM switcheroo is where the person or company sitting at the DRM controls over the content you’ve accumulated under one set of rules switches to a new set of rules. What, […]

More grist for your thinking mill.

-_ Rick

Early Memorial-day present.

rick — Tue, 30 May 2006 03:09:55 +0000

If you have a subscription to Jim Baen’s Universe, you should have gotten an email announcing that the magazine was open. If you didn’t get one, and you bought a subscription, you might want to contact us at members@baensuniverse.com

Getting Close

rick — Tue, 23 May 2006 15:07:14 +0000

as June 1 approaches, if you have e-arc access, we could use your many eyes to help us.

Any problem reports would be appriciated.

– The Head Geek

News from the Nebula’s

editors — Mon, 08 May 2006 14:15:25 +0000

The two biggest items on the SFWA auction list were a “lifetime subscription to F&SF” and a one-year “Andromeda subscription to Jim Baen’s Universe.”

The lifetime subscription to F&SF drew about $470.

The one year subscription to JBU drew $375.

Editor’s page

rick — Wed, 15 Mar 2006 23:46:18 +0000

You might want to go look at our able editor’s page. It just got a substantial face lift.

http://www.ericflint.net

-_ Rick