Baen Books Author Larry Correia Announces Going Fully Independent In Reaction To Ark Press News While Others Circle The Corporate Wagons
News has gotten out to the publishing world about Ark Press and its poaching of high-quality talent from Baen Books, causing a reaction from several Baen employees and authors, including Larry Correia, who says he’ll “add to the freak out” with a new announcement of going fully independent with future book series.
On Thursday, Fandom Pulse uncovered information in the publishing industry of interest to the culture war as we learned Peter Thiel and his investment group both put in an offer to buy Baen Books (that was declined), and as a result, started Ark Press where his company poached a lot of major talent from Baen, most notably, Larry Correia for a new modern fantasy series.
The information contained in the piece came from ten former and current Baen Books authors and employees, as well as business records searches to ensure the accuracy of what was being reported. Fandom Pulse prides itself on being the best-sourced coverage in all entertainment news, which is why we’ve quickly become the most-read blog in science fiction with more monthly views than John Scalzi’s Whatever.
However, it appears as if Baen Corporate attempted to circle the wagons to cast doubt upon the information contained in the article, even though none of them make any claims that the information about Thiel’s involvement in sci-fi and fantasy is inaccurate. Instead, personal attacks were made by several people who levied baseless claims.
Larry Correia posted a long-winded rant both on his blog and on X regarding the piece, opening with the personal attack, “So I hear certain people are trying to stir up outrage clicks spreading dumb rumors about some publishers again.”
Our article, however, does not contain any speculation, only a reporting of facts that have been verified and direct commentary from several Baen Books authors and employees, as previously noted.
Correia did, however, elaborate that he intends to diversify his book portfolio from Baen Books even further in the coming years. He said, “Here, I'll even add to the freak out, I'm also going to be doing some pure indy stuff in the future too. Why? Because I can, and I want to see what happens when I do. It has been a long time since I've experimented in that, the market has changed a ton since then, and has a lot of potential. I like making money. Me doing an indy project might make money. Go figure.”
Many of Correia’s fans reacted to his rant, voicing support for the author and making odd comments mocking his “career-ending,” responding to everything he said but not any of the information in Fandom Pulse’s article, as Correia obfuscated as to what the topic was at hand.
Former Sad Puppy Sarah A. Hoyt, who was dropped from Baen due to her poor sales and is not an American, replied with a bizarre comment, “Yeah. People asked, so I actually read the idiocy. It's all a thinly veiled tissue of hallucinations.... Having been the subject of such ‘reporting’ before, I'm not even amused.” It’s unclear what she’s talking about.
Fandom Pulse attempted to contact Correia through his blog comments, but Correia deleted our post as a response, and he has us blocked, giving us no ability to request he clarify or provide more information as to these additional ventures.
Baen author Justin Thomas Watson also made commentary on X saying, “Apropos of nothing much, @BaenBook is a fantastic publisher to work with, Toni Weisskopf is a genius mentor and editor. AND I'm really excited for @DavidJohnButler, his team and their new endeavor with @ark_press. I strongly encourage my fellow SFF book nerds to ignore anyone trying to make you put on a jersey for one ‘side’ or the other. I look forward to enjoying books from both for many years to come.”
As of this writing, we have yet to see anyone posting any commentary saying Toni Weisskopf is anything but a good editor. In fact, many authors Fandom Pulse spoke with in our original article fondly referenced Weisskopf, who gave anecdotes about her taking extra time and care even for short stories that weren’t likely to make Baen a lot of money. By all accounts, Weisskopf is an excellent editor.
Fandom Pulse commented to tried to reach out to Watson to ask where anyone was saying such things and also who was implying sides needed to be chosen between Ark Press and Baen Books, but Watson did not respond.
Author Kacey Ezell also chimed in, quote tweeting Watson and saying, “Justin is wise. Embrace the power of "and"... or in other words "why choose"? ;) IYKYK.”
Fandom Pulse also commented to reach out to Ezell to elaborate as to who’s asking to choose, but has not received a response as of this writing.
Most notable of the responses from Baen comes from editor Jason Cordova, who many authors say is the person likely to succeed Weisskopf when she retires. He posted to his Facebook page saying, “It pisses me off that I have to expend energy dealing with bull**** people writing bull**** lies about the job that is supporting me 100% while I’m undergoing cancer treatments, but apparently that’s par for the course these days.”
It's unclear what Peter Thiel and his investment group starting a publishing house have to do with Cordova’s editorial job or his cancer, but Fandom Pulse wishes Cordova the best of health and urges readers to keep the editor in their prayers.
DJ Butler, the face of Ark Press also chimed in on the topic during a livestream interview, bringing up the article to his interviewer. He started around the 21:40 mark in his Youtube interview saying “I’m not volunteering myself as the corrector of articles, and I’m not going to say very much. I’m not saying that Jon said this, but one might get the impression that Ark is sort of Anti-Baen.”
He is correct that that was never said nor implied by the article. However, it is quite clear from the addition of talent from Baen’s pool that the investment group owning Ark Press wanted to bring people they wanted from Baen’s talent aboard and poached them from the company. We also have heard from internal sources that the company is not happy about that poaching, which is not personal, but business related as they did lose talent to Ark Press because of this.
“Second, I would say this. Categorically, anybody who thinks there is a civil war inside Baen has no idea how Baen works. And I suspect that Jon just relied on sources that don’t know what they’re talking about, and are claiming more information than hey have,” he continued.
“Here’s what I suspect,” Butler said. “I suspect Jon talked to a former employee of Baen, who was fired for incompetence, not doing his job, and making false accusations, and that that guy, with his ignorance, general doofusness, and axe to grind, misinformed Jon,” he concluded.
While Butler does not name names, one of our inside sources at Baen says DJ Butler refers to former publicist Sean Korsgaard. Our source also said that there is bad blood between Butler and Korsgaard on a personal level. Korsgaard, however, declined to comment on the Baen situation, as we stated in our first article, and was not sourced for any of the content posted.
We did, however, speak with Butler, and clarify further statements about the alleged “kill switch” in contracts several writers told us Baen had. With Butler’s help, we spoke to the writers in question and looked at the contract to confirm no such kill switch exists, other than in the case of Baen declaring bankruptcy, which we clarified in an update to the post as we pride ourselves on accuracy.
In terms of the rest of the article, Butler said, “There’s a lot of stuff I’m not in a position to comment about.” He continued, “I don’t object to there being science fiction fandom journalism at all.”
When concluding on the topic, he said, “I have no reason to think Jon did anything inappropriate.”
He also clarified there is a whisper network involved saying, “I’ve been receiving texts all day asking if I’m okay. He didn’t say anything about me that’s bad or wrong. I’m accurately quoted, the quote I gave him. This is why I’m suspecting he’s accurately quoting what other people said to him too.”
Fandom Pulse appreciates DJ Butler’s honesty and interest in accuracy and wish him the best with Ark Press in the future. He has a new book on Science Fiction history available for pre-order called “Politically Incorrect Guide to Science Fiction and Fantasy” coming out in April that looks very interesting.
The information presented on Baen Books and Ark Press has thrown several authors and employees of Baen into a tailspin, though none have commented on the actual news of Peter Thiel and the business of Baen Books going forward. We will continue to cover the news as it breaks and support all conservatives and Christians writing in science fiction and fantasy.
What do you think of the reactions to the Baen Books and Ark Press article regarding Peter Thiel? Leave a comment and let us know.
For a great Christian-themed sci-fi that packs an action punch, read Justified: Saga of the Nano Templar on Amazon and support Fandom Pulse!
The reaction of Corriera and others hostile to Fandom Pulse reminds me of Nintendo when those running the company are unable to maintain narrative control. Fandom Pulse is one of the few media outlets that provides any positive things to say and recommendations to read Baen Books. Weird and unproductive on their part. May Baen see continued success regardless.
It seems that some authors, good as they may be, can do a great job of muddying the waters, rather than being clear and concise (ironic, unless they're paid by the word.)
I got the impression that Larry Correia had a bit of an ego, but this really cements that he does. It's unnecessary drama. Cooler heads could prevail if we weren't at the mercy of wildly off-the-wall weirdness.
I hope Larry does well. I just wish he'd stop that head of his from growing beyond his shoulders. :) Ego will crush you eventually. And one will have only himself to blame for that. Good writer... stupidly strange person. (I guess that goes with the territory sometimes.)
*shrug* It's like high school all over again with some of these people. :)