Baen books

[MatthewH]

For you SF fans: Baen has particularly reader-friendly policies on ebooks. They make many of their older books freely available, and their current stuff is available at very reasonable prices, in a wide variety of formats, without DRM copy protection. And if you can't wait for the latest from your favorite authors, they sell ARC "Advance Reader Copy" versions. An ARC is exactly what they got from the author before final edits, so they warn it will may contain typos and other errors. My experience has been, the Baen authors whose stuff I've read in ARC apparently sent the pretty clean copy, certainly the frequency of typos is lower than what I see in the New York Times these days! I dunno whether I'm getting grumpy in my fifties or whether their editorial standards are slipping, but I do seem to remember when I could read the NY Times without being annoyed by errors that got past their copyeditors. I just bought several ARC versions of the latest books by favorite authors for reading over the Thanksgiving holiday. Aside from getting to see the latest from these authors ahead of release date, I want to reward Baen for their reader-friendly policies. Also downloaded the free versions of older books which I already have in hardcopy, for portability. Anyway, if you read SF, do check out Baen's website.

[mister-j]

Just wanted to second what MatthewH said.  When I got my first Nook I was disappointed that some of my favorite authors had few book available at B&N.  Then someone on these boards pointed me to Baen.  Now most of the sideloaded books on my Nooks are from there.  Many good SciFy and Fantasy authors at good prices.

[The_Shook_Fami…]

I get a few books from baen, easy to bring over to nook just copy and pate really.

[japerry]

I love Baen! I discovered them about a year ago and they have been my go-to place for SciFi books. They definately get my vote!

[LoganK]

Baen and O'Reilly have been models for how publishers should treat their customers. I am extremely surprised that Baen still doesn't sell eBooks through other stores, but I would still buy direct from the publisher to reward them (and because I get the books in more formats).

[compulsiveread…]

I'll have to chime in here! Baen.com is an awesome site for Sci-Fi. I've read some of my favorites in DTB by David Weber to death and even loaned them to my grandson who loved them. I was able to pick up the whole series there FREE! I had planned to buy them, but free is cool

I've found some other new authors there too who I've liked that I'm willing to buy their books, especially since I found them on Baen. I feel appreciated there, like the authors and publishers actually know that they need US to read their books as much as we need them to write them.

Even found some of the older series that I've been looking for. The best source of Sci-Fi/Fantasy out there and you don't have to wade through a lot of "paranormal romances" to find them.

[MatthewH]

Note that some older Baen titles are not available in epub format because they predate that format, they are available in such formats as html and rtf. My preferred way to read these on my NC is first open the rtf in Open Office, select all, make the font bigger, then export as PDF. I sideload the PDF onto my NC and view it with the EzOdfReader app. Newer Baen titles are available in epub format, so I just sideload to my NC and read like any other ebook.

[GetLostInABook]

I've been getting books from Baen for a long time - way back to when I read on a Palm...

They are the model that all others should follow.

[CascaraBorzoi]

BAEN ROCKS!

And I'll agree about standards for e-books...I just recently found the first in a series that I have enjoyed for a long time at B&N, bought it, and then could hardly make it through reading it because of the errors. If it had been a hardcover or paperback, I would have returned it to B&N before I was halfway through! Unfortunately, there is no way to do that with e-books (at least not that I know if).

I will admit that my profession is Word Processing (with some minor editing thrown in), and I am probably extra critical about such things, but this e-book was really bad. I have noticed that the second book in the series is now available from B&N, but there is no way I will buy it until I have had a chance to go to B&N and read it free for an hour so that I can check it out.

[LoganK]

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CascaraBorzoi wrote:

And I'll agree about standards for e-books...I just recently found the first in a series that I have enjoyed for a long time at B&N, bought it, and then could hardly make it through reading it because of the errors. If it had been a hardcover or paperback, I would have returned it to B&N before I was halfway through! Unfortunately, there is no way to do that with e-books (at least not that I know if).

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It does stink when the publisher makes you feel like a second-class customer. I guess if the choice is availability or quality, I would probably choose availability. Still, it's particularly galling when the book is more than $8 (or even as high as $14 on some of these shoddy titles).

As Stephen R. Donaldson wrote about his own really shoddy eBooks:

I've just learned that the production AND PROOFREADING for Bantam/Spectra e-books is done...in India. By people who barely speak English. (Apparently this applies to every e-book published by the conglomerate which includes Bantam.) Maybe it's time we all starting paying attention to who publishes the e-books we want to read. (HUGE sigh)

[Zion21]

I used to use Baen too all the time but the conveience of buying right from B&N's site is worth it, for me.

[TaustinOC]

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MatthewH wrote:
Note that some older Baen titles are not available in epub format because they predate that format, they are available in such formats as html and rtf. My preferred way to read these on my NC is first open the rtf in Open Office, select all, make the font bigger, then export as PDF. I sideload the PDF onto my NC and view it with the EzOdfReader app. Newer Baen titles are available in epub format, so I just sideload to my NC and read like any other ebook.

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I believe that Calibre will also convert rtf to epub, which might produce a better reading experience.

[orb9220]

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CascaraBorzoi wrote:

BAEN ROCKS!

I have noticed that the second book in the series is now available from B&N, but there is no way I will buy it until I have had a chance to go to B&N and read it free for an hour so that I can check it out.

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Pretty Sad come to think of it. If you have to use up your free hour just to skim an e-book for content.

No more laid back and enjoy actually reading as too busy trying to get thru it FF checking it.

.

[MDD73]

I have not read any of Baen's books so far, but I did recently download some of their free library titles to check out. Their prices are certainly reasonable and they have an extensive free selection.

[Omnigeek]

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orb9220 wrote:

Pretty Sad come to think of it. If you have to use up your free hour just to skim an e-book for content.

No more laid back and enjoy actually reading as too busy trying to get thru it FF checking it.

.

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Why exactly is this sad?  There's nothing to say you have to hurry and you get an hour to read free without commitment.  You can even go back and read for another hour on another day and another hour on another day ad infinitum.  I don't see the downside to this.  TANSTAAFL.