It’s been a rough year for Baen Books, who had their top living author Larry Correia diversifying away from the company as he’s writing for Ark Press and Aethon Books. Recent announcements seem to indicate the company is trying to do what it can to strip mine old IPs from dead authors to keep themselves afloat.
Earlier this year, Fandom Pulse reported how Larry Correia saw the writing on the wall at Baen Books, a company that’s struggled to retain its identity in science fiction ever since the Sad Puppies controversy of the Hugo Awards in the mid-2010s. While corporate wanted to distance themselves from the event as much as possible, the fanbase actually loved it.
A seminal event in Baen history was when Toni Weisskopf actually shut down the forum “Baen’s Bar” for a time after serial trolls from the mainstream publishing industry were talking about how they might have “liability” because of January 6th, a false flag operation where the left claimed Trump supporters were rioting, but as we now know was an FBI-coordinated psyop.
Since this point, the company seemed to lose its identity and what made it what it was. Baen Books was seen as the alternative to much of the Pink Sci-Fi of the mainstream industry being put out by Tor Books and others. However, their staple of male-driven military science fiction quickly got eaten up by the Amazon algorithm riders who topped charts with rapid-release books that an old publishing company couldn’t compete with.
The company didn’t really develop a next generation of stars to take over from their aging stable of John Ringo, David Weber, David Drake and others. While several of their authors sadly passed away, the company mostly milked their remaining living authors and attached younger co-writers to projects. These books invariably don’t sell as well as the main series, but they also didn’t really bring forth any stars who could sell on their own right.
The result was the state the company is now: their biggest star author flirting with other companies, while they’re trying their hardest to keep the co-written books going. Newer authors tend to be pushing toward the exact Pink SF that Baen Books used to be the alternative to, as increasingly the Baen catalog is publishing exactly that.
Recent releases show books that could very well be written by Patrick S. Tomlinson or Cat Rambo rather than what one would expect from Baen. And it hasn’t looked good this year with the company rumored to be in financial troubles from Baen authors who reported they aren’t quick to pay out royalties.
While the sales of these are obviously something that’s not going to keep a company going, in recent months, they seem to have taken a turn for a new strategy: find old IPs and make sure they keep going.
First, it was announced that Eric Flint’s 1632 series would keep going under Charles Gannon. Flint died a few years back and apparently the company had the rights to keep it going. Their press release read:
Toni Weisskopf has announced that Baen Books will be publishing more books in Eric Flint’s 1632 series.
In accordance with Eric’s wishes, Chuck Gannon has been named the series’ “showrunner.” That role includes oversight and development of all physically published content, managing the series’ thematic directions, and close consulting on cross-platform opportunities and marketing.
Gannon brings broad experience and achievements to his role, both as an editor and a best-selling author. A four-time Nebula finalist (novel), he is also the recipient of the American Library Association Choice Award for Outstanding book, the Dragon Award, and the Compton Crook Award.
While Gannon is a good choice to steward for such a property, they’ve been continuing to publish the 1632 line for the last couple of years, which makes for an odd timing for the announcement, especially given Baen has not put out many press releases at all in the last year.
The second IP gets even more interesting as an announcement’s been made of a much older IP, The Ship series by Anne McCaffrey getting the return treatment. While McCaffrey often did the “co-author” strategy with Baen on old books in the series, with great collaborators like Jody Lynn Nye and S.M. Stirling, this one clearly doesn’t have her involvement as she’s been gone a long, long time.
As a part of the gimmick to draw attention to it, Baen brought in antoher “co-author” in Mercedes Lackey to be a part of the new book. While this series hasn’t seen much attention in decades, it’s interseting that Baen is bringing back these properties at this point, and also with a much older writer attached to try to lend gravitas toward it.
It’s yet to be seen how well this strategy would work for Baen, but it appears to be a Hail Mary to retain some sembelence of relevenacy in the changing market as their newer properties flounder in the Pink SF territory.
What do you think of this development of Baen milking older IPs from dead authors? Leave a comment and let us know.
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Baen is the new Tor Books. It won't be long before they'll be publishing John Scalzi.
I hope it works for them. They need a guy with some fire. Mrs Weisskopf has done okay holding the fort, but she's more like a capable Delta than the leader Baen needs.