Beginning in mid-1999, Baen emphasized
electronic publishing and Internet-focused promotions for its publications. The discussions on Baen's bar convinced him to do so. but in a nutshell, emphasizes distribution of unencrypted digital versions of its works free of
digital rights management copy protection schemes through
Baen Ebooks (formerly Webscriptions, which was not formally part of Baen Books, but in effect an independent
e-publisher). Baen and his successors believe that DRM does more harm than good to a publisher. Consequently, Baen also makes its entire catalog available in multiple formats for downloading and typically prices electronic versions of its books at or below that of paperback editions—and makes a profit doing it. On February 15, 2021, American author
Jason Sanford posted via
Patreon "Baen Books Forum Being Used to Advocate for Political Violence". Publisher
Toni Weisskopf released a statement. In response to the allegations and the documented evidence provided to them, the
DisCon III Convention Committee revoked Toni Weisskopf's Guest of Honor status at the 2021 Worldcon. Announcing the reopening of Baen's Bar on April 9th, 2021, Weisskopf issued a denial of allegations against the forum. On reopening, the Forum was then made private to members only, with membership restricted to those who make a purchase from the Baen Books website. The public controversy over Baen's Bar led to former Baen Books author and former Baen's Bar participant
Mercedes Lackey to contact Sandford to discuss her own exit. She wanted to respond to why there was a "Posted rule" on Baen's Bar banning discussion of her leaving, which alleged Lackey had a personal grievance against Jim Baen. Sandford posted this as an update to his Patreon post.) bundle regardless of the number of books (historically 4–9 books, average 5–6). The
Monthly Baen Bundles are released in installments beginning three months prior to physical publication. The first installment released three months prior to paper publication includes roughly a half of every book in the bundle, with some books usually included in their entirety. The second installment, two months prior to print publication includes roughly three quarters, and the third installment on the 16th of the month prior to official print release includes the full text. The first two installments are generally available only as HTML, while the last includes all formats supported. Each bundle can only be bought until the 15th of the month prior to official print publication, which is about the time the printed books reach retailers. (Until December 2012, bundles remained on sale indefinitely.) Another avenue for distribution that Baen uses for some of its new titles is the offering of (electronic
advance reading copies) 3 to 5 months prior to publication. Marketed as a premium product for the fans who absolutely positively have to read it now, they are priced at $15 per single title and can differ from the final text (as they are electronic proofs). After print publication, the "cleaned up and finalized" electronic copy is available both online through the monthly bundle or as a single title (priced variably $7–10, older titles are less).
Charles N. Brown, publisher of
Locus magazine, has praised Baen's approach in an interview in
The New York Times, saying "Baen has shown that putting up electronic versions of books doesn't cost you sales. It gains you a larger audience for all of your books. As a result, they've done quite well."
Magazine experiments Baen's first run at magazine-style book publishing took place in the late 1970s, in the form of
Destinies, a quarterly 'bookazine' that featured fiction and non-fiction by well-known and new authors that Baen was promoting. It was published by Ace, where Baen was employed at the time. Under the aegis of Baen Books in the 1980s, he published two more bookazine series. The first was
Far Frontiers. The second was
New Destinies,
''Jim Baen's Universe'' In the early 2000s, Baen tried magazine-like publishing again, establishing two self-sustaining
e-zine enterprises with a separate staff for each, both spearheaded by
Eric Flint: ''
Jim Baen's Universe and the Grantville Gazette series, which was reconfigured after Grantville Gazette V''. The general audience
speculative fiction anthology ''Baen's Universe
is available only online. At approximately 120,000 words, this latter publication is unusually large when compared to most traditional print editions of science fiction magazines, and the average size of the newly reconfigured Gazette''s is similarly generous.
Baen Digital Object Identifiers (DOI) From 1999 to 2011, Baen's e-books were produced by Webscriptions under contract for Baen Books in various (at least five) common digital formats. Because these multiple formats complicate the issue of identifying electronic versions, Baen and Webscriptions did not use
DOIs to identify their e-books (even though some of their books had DOIs). The electronic e-ARC practices also complicate things in "publications dates", since the first released text starts two to three months before the release of the print copy, though the released text is not guaranteed to fully copy edited—and so occasionally differs from the final released fully copy-edited versions. Thus, like the
Grantville Gazettes the e-publication date antedates the print copy by about two months—the interval before the release of the last third and the hardcover print edition is simultaneously released. ==Authors and works==