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Baen Books is an American publishing company established in 1983 by Jim Baen. It publishes science fiction (largely Space Opera and Military Science Fiction) and fantasy.

In addition to new works by authors including Lois McMaster Bujold, Eric Flint, David Drake, John Ringo, Ryk E. Spoor, S.M. Stirling, and David Weber, the company occasionally re-releases classic older SF works, by authors including Andre Norton, James H. Schmitz, and Manly Wade Wellman.

Among SF fans, the company's book covers are notorious — they're often lurid, sometimes going so far as to be contemptible, and frequently belie intelligent and well-written contents. Apparently they sell really well, though.

Baen is also known for engaging with the customer base online, through the internet forum Baen's Bar, and through an extensive e-book catalogue, available at Webscriptions. Baen e-books are available in a variety of formats, all free of DRM copy restrictions. Over 100 titles (mostly first volumes of series) are also free as in beer in the Baen Free Library, updated as the writing schedule of Mr. Flint (who maintains the collection) allows.

In addition to the Free Library, Baen also has the habit of including CDs bound into the hardback first editions of certain books (usually from popular series like the Honor Harrington or Miles Vorkosigan novels) which feature the complete collection of novels from that series to date, along with (often) several other novels by the same author. Each CD prominently displays the license "This disk and its contents may be copied and shared, but NOT sold. All commercial rights reserved." As such, several websites have collected archives of the Baen CDs; the most famous is BaenCD at The Fifth Imperium. Beware: the sheer number of different novels available for free on that site can cause an Archive Binge worse than discovering TV Tropes for the first time. Yes, you read that right.

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Tropes related to this publisher:

• Contemptible Cover: A full list would triple the size of this page, so just head over there.
• Designated Victim: Joe Buckley (maintainer of the abovementioned "The Fifth Imperium" website). By most of the above authors, and in some very inventive ways.
• Digital Piracy Is Evil: Averted by the Free Library and the CDs.

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Billy Birmingham

Creators

Gary Brecher