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I went to college (Oberlin) and got a degree in
anthropology, but spent far more time on the science fiction club
than anything else. As soon as I got out of school, I started work
in
New York at
Baen and worked my way up to my current position, executive
editor. Baen has always been on the
cutting edge of technology use, and back when I started Baen was the only company to give
computers to its editorial staff. Everybody else seemed to think
they were for accounting only!
I’ve had the chance to work with some of my
idols in the field, including Robert A. Heinlein before he died,
Fred Pohl, Spider Robinson, Lois Bujold,
David Weber, Charles Sheffield, Anne McCaffrey—a bunch of others. My
latest solo project has been a series (two so far) of original
anthologies titled Cosmic Tales. I get to commission
the kind of fun, adventurous, mind-expanding SF
stories I like to read. Hopefully, others will like them, too!
Q. Baen is
rather unique in the publishing industry today, because it is independently owned. Considered a
"small press" by some, it manages to publish
some of the most well-known authors in the genre. Tell me
more about Baen.
What makes it special? How has it succeeded while other
independent small presses fail?
A. While very definitely independent, Baen is by no means a “small press.”
From its inception, Baen was intended
to serve as Pocket Books’ SF line, and Pocket Books/Simon &
Schuster has distributed us since the beginning (1984). We’ve
always had the market penetration of a large house, but without
all of the maneuvering and politicking one has to do within a
large house. Really the best of both worlds.
One reason Baen
has managed to thrive these past 20 plus years while a host of
other SF lines and companies have failed during that time is the
love and knowledge of the field the publisher and editors bring to
the party. Jim Baen is focused on
publishing what he likes and his staff is dedicated to supporting
that vision of SF. We aren’t just book people at Baen, we’re SF book people. Readers
recognize what the Baen brand stands
for.
Q. I believe I read in an old bio that
you'd been in the business for nearly
20 years, and all at Baen. What
changes have you seen in the industry,
as a whole in this time, and at Baen
itself?
A. I’ve seen the publishing industry go
through some interesting expansion and contractions. We’ve gone
from small publishing houses specializing in one format to massive
vertical consolidation, the rise of the mall store, the decline of
the mall store and rise of the book superstore, the rise of
Internet marketing, the decline of the
mass market paperback. Nothing stays the same except the
insatiable audience for science fiction. The readers are out there
no matter how the delivery system changes.
At Baen we have,
if anything, gotten leaner and more focused on our core audience,
like going from the Swiss army knife of SF to a well polished
sword.
Q. Baen is
one of the few publishers still taking unsolicited manuscripts, can you explain how a manuscript is
processed once you receive it? And, if you
buy it, how long, and what is the process, till it is on a
bookstore's shelves?
A. While we still accept hard-copy
submissions, we strongly encourage electronic submissions via our
website. Manuscript guidelines can be found under FAQs there. As with every other
publisher, it can take a loooong time
for a manuscript to be evaluated and either returned or an offer
made. However, once that happens things
usually move pretty quickly. Once we have a contract in hand, a
manuscript can be published within a year.
Q. Baen has
a reputation for publishing hard SF.
What type of manuscripts are you
looking for? Has this changed over the years?
A. We do like to publish hard SF, what Jim Baen
calls “real SF.”
Of course that’s not all we publish. We are known for our military
SF (Jim essentially invented the subgenre), urban fantasy, space
opera and alternate history, too.
To paraphrase our manuscript
guidelines: We publish only science fiction and fantasy. Powerful
plots with solid scientific and philosophical underpinnings are
the sine qua non for consideration for science fiction
submissions. As for fantasy, any magical system must be both
rigorously coherent and integral to the plot, and overall the work
must at least strive for originality. Manuscripts that meet those
criteria are then judged on plot and characterization. As for
style, in our opinion good style, like good breeding, never calls
attention to itself.
This hasn’t changed for years.
Q. How many books does Baen currently publish in a year? How
many of them are by new authors?
A. We publish three to four new titles a
month, the rest are reprints (usually mass market from our hardcovers). Of those, I’d say we
publish two to three new authors a year, some years more, some
years fewer.
Q. Do you have any Canadian authors
among Baen's current authors? If not why? Would you feel that Canadian
content in a book would be a problem for
publishing in the States?
A. Off the top of my head I can think of two
Canadian residents who currently publish with
Baen: Spider Robinson and Paul Chafe. Paul’s been
publishing stories in Larry Niven’s
Man-Kzin Wars series, and had
stories in each of my Cosmic Tales anthologies. We
just bought his first novel (a Man-Kzin
Wars novel) this year.
I’m not sure what “Canadian content” is
regarding a science fiction story—so long as
its SF and believable, that’s what we care about.
Q. When I've spoken to other editors,
they seem worried about the future of book
publishing in general. They claim people aren't reading like they
used to. Would you agree? Or, is it
that the bigger firms aren't publishing what
he public wants to read? Is Baen
feeling the crunch, too? What do you see for the future of
Baen and the industry in general?
A. If I’ve learned one thing in 20 years,
it’s that the status quo of book publishing is always changing. We are running into a new generation of people who don’t
automatically turn to books for entertainment. Partly this is
because the publishing establishment hasn’t been giving people
entertaining books to read on a regular basis. And for me,
entertainment has to include intellectual stimulation. Baen hasn’t lost track of that, so I
don’t think we’ll lose readership but instead only will grow to
fill the vacuum created by others falling down on the job. (Sorry
if I sound a little cocky, but that’s the way I see it!) And, of
course, what the new generation lacks in sophistication about
books is made up for by their comfortable navigation of the Web,
and Baen has long had one of the best
Web sites in the business, which can only help.
Q. There seems to be a controversy
today about publishing books, or portions
of books, on the Web. Unlike most others,
Baen often has large sections of
some of their author's books on line. Would you comment on this?
Has this practice affected Baen's
sales?
A. It sure has affected sales: it’s boosted
them tremendously! We have over 50 books available at the Baen Free Library and more get posted
all the time. Our Webscriptions e-book
program has from the start refused to play silly encryption games,
but instead Jim chose to make the books as widely and easily
accessible as possible. And, what a shock, what a surprise, ease
of use is exactly what people are looking for. That and a quality
reading experience.
How do you know if you like an author until
you’ve tried his or her works? You don’t, which is one of the
wonderful things about the Baen Free
Library and our free sample chapters on-line. It’s exactly like
standing in a bookstore and reading a chapter, except you don’t
get swollen feet at the end of it.
If you are proud of your books and certain of
your wares, why not give a free sample? It’s
also not coincidence that many of the books available at the Baen Free Library are the first in a
series. Once you’ve found an author you like, don’t you have a
tendency to try to read everything available by them? We make that
process a lot easier and readers like that. We cater to book
addicts and are proud of it. And our authors like it, too, because
they see the boost in sales.
The e-books industry does seem poised to take
off. Jim Baen tells me that e-books
billing throughout the industry took a 50-percent rise from last
year. The numbers would indicate Baen Webscriptions is responsible for
something like 10 percent of e-books' gross business. And Webscriptions is not that big. But we
are at the crest of the wave, and I can only see more and more
people utilizing e-books. The rest of the industry is having a
hard time shifting its paradigm, but Baen
has seen from the beginning it’s all about the content.
Which is not to say that
e-books will replace bound books. E-books are just another
way to plug into readers. We’ve found that many people will read a
book on-line, then buy a hard copy for re-reading, to share with
friends, and so on. Or read the first in a series and then buy
hard copies of the rest of the books. Books are a handy way of
dispensing words, just no longer the only way.
Q. Travel costs in
Canada are often quite
a bit higher than in the States. This of course means that it's
difficult to get to many cons to meet editors
and agents. Can you suggest any ways that Canadian authors
can get more
exposure, and publishing contracts in the States?
A. I can suggest checking out Baen’s Bar at www.baen.com, free for the
price of your Internet connection. Any number of our newer authors
got their start there: John Ringo, Tom Kratman, Mike Williamson, Dave Freer,
to name four, and I’m sure there will
be more.
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SF Canada
