[SGVLUG] Interesting news and discussion on Baen and DRM-free ebooks

[Lan Dang]

As usual, I am behind the times on news.  I learned today that the science fiction publisher, Baen, is finally expanding their ebook market to Amazon and Barnes and Noble.  

http://www.the-digital-reader.com/2012/12/07/free-ebook-site-baencd-fifth-imperium-shuts-down-as-sf-publisher-baen-books-moves-to-sell-ebooks-in-the-kindle-store/#.USsaWeaXtQQ

The comments are interesting as insiders chime in about why this move was so long in coming and what it really means.  

Baen has always occupied a special place in my heart for the Baen Free Library and Webscriptions, and later, the Baen CDs with bonus digital content, that would accompany some of their hardbacks.   See Wikipedia for more about this: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baen_Ebooks

To be honest, I had never thought about Baen books not being in the Kindle or Nook store because I buy the ebooks directly from Baen.  They understand that avid readers read widely and voraciously, but we are selective in what we spend out book budget on.  And they are confident enough in the quality of their books that they know if we get a taste of it, we will spend our budget on their books.

They make it easier for us to buy their books by offering a selection of books for free in a variety of formats, so we have a good sample of an author's work.  And they offer DRM-free ebooks in all formats for a reasonable price, which we can download as many times as we want.    They also offer ebook bundles to encourage us to try new authors and books without breaking the bank.  Unfortunately, their selection is necessarily small as there are few publishers who are willing to allow their content to be distributed DRM-free.    

This is a shame.  It took me a long time to adopt ebooks and dedicated readers because I didn't want to be locked into an ecosystem or own digital content that was useless if I didn't use the hardware/software authorized to read it.    I was buying Baen ebooks  years before I had a tablet or dedicated ereader, because Baen took the anxiety out of it.  DRM-free and multiple formats.  I wish everyone did that.  

Lan

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