Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2006 14:34:48 -0400
From: "Michael Walsh" <MJW at press.jhu.edu>
To: <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Jim Baen, 1943 - 2006
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

> samlubell at verizon.net 6/29/2006 12:40:44 PM >>>
>In my opinion, the sf field as a whole owes Baen a big debt.

One of the quirks about Jim Baen were some of the books he published.
He's certainly stereotyped for the "right wing nutso military sci-fi"
stuff, but he also published Joanna Russ, who certainly doesn't fall
into any of those categories.  And she would almost certainly drive many
of the Baen authors and readers bat sh*t. (Note I said "many", not
all.)

And he reprinted Fred Brown, Many Wade Wellman's "Who Fears The Devil"
(a great collection weird Appalachian "fantasy", almost folk stories).

>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).

Not Piper, but at Ace he was responsible for acquiring the estate from
the Commonwealth of PA and commencing a reprint program.  Due to someone
not doingtheir job at Ace, all of Piper up to and including Little Fuzzy
are now public domain.

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

Even now the book industry is still struggling to come terms with
e-books and DRM.  It'll be interesting to see how things shake out.

>
>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.

The first of GRRMs fantasy series Bantam has priced at $3.99.  Lord
knows they've made back their production costs on those books ages upon
ages ago. <g>

One of the perceived down sides to cheaper books is that the store has
to sell more of them to make the same money as before.  OTOH, the pitch
from the publisher is probably along the lines of getting new readers
hookedon the series and therefore getting sucked  into buying the rest.

mjw