Talk:Baen Ebooks

This article was nominated for deletion on February 15, 2007. The result of the discussion was Nomination withdrawn.

This article was moved to its current title from Webscriptions in January 2012, and expanded to cover both Webscriptions and its replacement. Much of the text on this page predates that move.

Untitled[edit]

I think this entry is now redundant and should be removed in favor of/redirected to Baen Books. There's not really enough to merit a separate Webscriptions writeup when Webscriptions is considered as a part of Baen's overall ebook history/philosophy.

--Robotech_Master 18:56, 3 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Although Webscriptions only sells Baen Books (with minor exceptions, so far), it is wholly owned and operated by Arnold Bailey of Webwrights; monies taken in by Webscriptions are portioned out in some small payment to authors and to Jim Baen (his cut), but are handled by Webwrights. Baen doesn't own Webscriptions nor do they own the website. I'd leave the entry, but I'd edit it to reflect these facts.

--Editrx 05:30, 14 February 2006 (UTC) (former production manager, Baen Books)[reply]

Not an ad[edit]

This not an advertisement. It is a description of an interesting site, one of the pioneers of Ebooks. Please submit it to AfD if you insist on deleting this, but speedying it seems like ultra deletionist bad faith.--_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus | talk} 04:07, 15 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Tor Books[edit]

Does anyone know why Tor Books and DAW are mentioned as participants in Webscriptions, while in fact they are not???

This "fact" has been added by User:Fabartus in his edit of 11 December 2007. Nolaviz (talk) 20:02, 2 February 2009 (UTC)[reply]

references[edit]

This article seriously needs decent references. That's documents / links talking substantively about the website that aren't from the company, closely connected companies or their stable of authors. Stuartyeates (talk) 08:13, 20 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Webscriptions → Baen Ebooks[edit]

In January 2012, Baen replaced webscription.net with Baen Ebooks. Here's a copy of the email they sent to Webscription.net customers, dated 5-Jan-2012:

Change your bookmarks! WebScription.net is now Baen Ebooks (http://www.BaenEbooks.com)! We made some changes to our Web site to more closely integrate our Ebookstore with the Baen.com home page as well as to simplify the user experience. But don't worry; all the exciting, DRM-free content remains untouched. Below you'll find helpful hints to make the transition a smooth experience.

We renamed WebScriptions "Monthly Baen Bundles" and all past bundles are still available under the new name. You can locate them under the "Categories" section on the left navigation bar.

You will also see your order history has been unaffected. If you log in to your account on Baen Ebooks, you can see a list of the books you have purchased by clicking on "My Books" on the left hand side of the page under the Categories section. Click on the purchased Ebook you'd like to download (either the cover image, the title, or the "Download" link), and you'll be taken to the product page where you will find a list of download links.

Kindle users who authorize Baen Ebooks to email books directly to their Kindles need to update their Amazon accounts with our new email address: Ebooks@BaenEbooks.com. Visit our How-to guide for the Amazon Kindle for more information: http://www.baenebooks.com/t-ereaderinstructions.aspx#kindle.

We no longer support logging on to Baen Ebooks through the Stanza App. However, you can still download a Baen Ebook directly to your Apple device on the go! Visit our how-to guide for Apple iOS devices for more information: http://www.baenebooks.com/t-ereaderinstructions.aspx#iBooks.

For the latest news about Baen, including information about new releases, exciting contests, publication schedules, and how to meet your favorite authors, make sure to sign up for our monthly newsletter: http://www.baen.com/newsletter.asp.

Regards,

Baen Ebooks Web Team

Despite the name change, they still sell non-Baen books.

I've moved this article from "Webscriptions" to "Baen Ebooks", and started updating it. I also took out some poorly-sourced stuff, dead links etc. More work is needed, but it's after 3am here and I need to go to bed. Still to fix: NYT/Wired refs, list of publishers. Further edits welcome. Cheers, CWC 17:22, 6 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I've now tidied up the use of the 2001 items from NYT and Wired, updated the list of publishers who use Baen Ebooks (see below) and added a list of the supported e-book formats. The article is still not that good, but I think (hope?) it's better than it was. Anyone reading this who thinks s/he could do better is probably right; please go ahead.

PS: capitalizing e-books as "Ebooks" was Baen Books' idea, not mine. Cheers, CWC 14:17, 7 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Publishers[edit]

I went through the list of publishers at www.BaenEbooks.com, counting the titles (not bundles, not e-ARCs) on sale from each publisher. (Note that none of Tor's titles are currently for sale, except the e-ARC As of 7-Jan-2012, the Baen Ebooks website lists the following publishers:

Publisher	# titles
Ace Books	1 (by Robert Heinlein)
Baen Books	lots
Bantam Spectra	1 (by Charles Sheffield)
Del Rey Books	2 (by Robert Heinlein)
E-Reads	lots
Ford Street Publishing (Paul Collins)	11
Gallery	1 (by Robert Heinlein)
Night Shade Books	lots
Schlock Mercenary	4 (the first 4 Schlock Mercenary books as high-res PDFs)
SRM Publisher	2 (Liaden universe collections)
Tor Books	0
Yard Dog Press (Selina Rosen)	4

So I've changed the list of publishers in the article to Baen, E-Reads, Ford Street, Night Shade, Schlock Mercenary, and Yard Dog Press.

Note: while BaenEBooks.com lists several Tor titles, only 2 e-ARCs of David Drake books are currently on sale. In my edits last night, I removed some poorly-sourced speculation dating back to 2006 that Tor would go back to using Webscriptions. At present, there is no sign that Tor will ever resume selling DRM-free e-books. Tor's editors and management are notably savvy, but their corporate masters seem much less cluey. (Bah, says I. In fact: BAH!) CWC 07:23, 7 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Since writing the preceding, I've come across a comment by Patrick Nielsen Hayden in 2006 at his home blog in a thread about Jim Baen's final illness and death:

[Baen] is the only major publishing house that "gets it" with respect to ebooks

Holy crap, is that ever true. The full story of just how true will be written in Heaven.

I feel this is too terse to use in this article (plus blog comments are dubious as sources), but it does serve to illuminate how one of the brightest people in SF publishing feels about Jim Baen's policies with respect to e-books. Cheers, CWC 17:32, 8 January 2012 (UTC)[reply]

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