Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2006 11:40:44 -0500 (CDT)
From: <samlubell at verizon.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Jim Baen, 1943 - 2006
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

In my opinion, the sf field as a whole owes Baen a big debt.

He published a lot of new writers and promoted them so they became big.

He republished a lot of classics that had been out of print for years (yes, sometimes these were edited by Eric Flint, but at least he brought them back to print in accessible mass market PB editions.  And not just the Schmitz stories but Anvil, Laumer, Piper and probably others I'm forgetting).

He has pioneered e-books in a way that no one else in the field has.

And I was just in a bookstore yesterday and saw a bunch of first books in popular series at special prices (something like $3.99, which these days is half the cost of a regular PB), something that may help bring in new readers.