Baen Books

About Baen Books

Baen Books is an American science fiction and fantasy publisher founded in 1983 by the editor Jim Baen, known for military science fiction, the Vorkosigan and Honor Harrington series, and early DRM-free ebooks.

Jim Baen (1943 to 2006) had worked at Ace Books, edited the magazines Galaxy and If from 1973 and later ran science fiction at Tor under Tom Doherty. In 1983 Simon & Schuster, which was closing its Timescape science fiction line at Pocket Books, asked him to run an imprint; instead he set up his own company, with Simon & Schuster distributing its books. Simon & Schuster still distributes Baen in the United States. The company is based in Wake Forest, North Carolina.

Baen published Lois McMaster Bujold's first Vorkosigan novels, beginning with Shards of Honor in June 1986, and David Weber's On Basilisk Station (1993), the first Honor Harrington book. Other authors on its list include C. J. Cherryh, David Drake, James P. Hogan, Mercedes Lackey, Andre Norton, Jerry Pournelle, Timothy Zahn, Harry Turtledove, Larry Niven and Robert A. Heinlein.

From mid-1999 Baen put weight on ebooks sold without copy protection, and its Baen Free Library (1999) offered many titles as free downloads without hurting paid sales. After Jim Baen died on 28 June 2006, a fortnight after a stroke, Toni Weisskopf, who joined as an editorial assistant in 1987, became publisher.