Larry Correia Deals Another Blow To Struggling Baen Books By Moving To Aethon Books For New Fantasy Series
New York Times bestselling author Larry Correia now has a full Amazon page listing with publisher Aethon Books for a new fantasy series starting with the book Academy of Outcasts, dealing yet another significant blow to his longtime publisher Baen Books, which is already reeling from talent poaching by Peter Thiel-backed Ark Press.
Aethon Books announced the deal on their website earlier this year, stating: "We are excited to announce that we have signed a deal with Larry Corriea, New York Times bestselling author of Monster Hunter International, to pen an Epic Progression Fantasy series titled, ACADEMY OF OUTCASTS!"
The new series represents a significant departure from Correia's usual urban fantasy and military sci-fi works, venturing into the increasingly popular progression fantasy subgenre. According to the Amazon listing, the series follows "a poor young man from the fire realm who is destined for nothing except servitude to magic-wielding masters. Until one day he sneaks through the portal which connects each realm and gains access to one of the Academies for the gifted. The worst one... There, he'll find out if he can master magic he thought was impossible, make something of himself, and bring the Academy of Outcasts to glory."
This move to Aethon Books comes on the heels of Correia's February announcement that he would be going fully independent with a future book series. In this announcement, "add to the freak out" with his announcement after it was revealed to the world that Peter Thiel attempted to buy BaenBooks, failed, and then added Larry Correia to a roster of authors to start Ark Press.
Aethon Books has established itself as a formidable player in the science fiction and fantasy publishing world by developing an innovative pipeline from web fiction site Royal Road to mainstream publishing. This strategy has allowed them to identify proven stories with built-in audiences before investing in traditional publications, creating a more sustainable business model than traditional publishers like Baen.
The timing couldn't be worse for Baen Books, which has relied heavily on Correia's bestselling titles to subsidize their less profitable authors. As one of their top-selling writers, Correia's Monster Hunter International series and Saga of the Forgotten Warrior have provided the financial foundation that allows Baen to take risks on newer authors and maintain their midlist writers who don't generate enough revenue to be profitable on their own. According to a Baen Books insider, Baen waits for larger sums of funds to come in from authors like Correia and David Weber to then pay out the authors who aren’t getting any marketing support from the company.
With Ark Press also already having poached multiple editors from Baen's roster and Correia now splitting his new projects between Ark, his independent work, and Aethon Books, Baen faces a massive threat to its business model.
As less and less of Correia’s output is going to Baen, and with their other major revenue producers, David Weber and John Ringo, aging and producing less for the company, it’s caused fans to wonder how long Baen Books might last in this current environment when they refuse to change with the times.
Of note, John Ringo has also been diversifying his output by posting a lot of work to Substack, where he can get direct revenue from his readers.
Aethon Books seems to be at the forefront of ensuring revenue producers are tied in tightly with their company, producing hit after hit and developing a pipeline of authors from sites like Royal Road where they know they’ll be able to have those authors garner a readership.
Academy of Outcasts from Larry Correia will be out on October 7th.
What do you think of Larry Correia's further moving from Baen Books to Aethon Books? Leave a comment and let us know.
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Fantasy progression, if I have it right, works like "leveling up" in RPGs, or like characters performed in older/pulp-type series, where junior officers or ratings would be in stories and get promoted, injured, or other effects in books. The changes get used through the series, until a character gets too senior and "retires" out as protagonist. Good approach, and makes for better narration and flow control. Highly surprised that Baen hasn't found new authors to write like this, as Weber and Ringo did in the 90s.
Phil Tucker's "Bastion" is another excellent academy progression series to check out, and it's completely indie.