Quote:
Originally Posted by DMcCunney
Exactly.
Baen was promoting authors, and figured the best way to do that was offer complete books from the backlist. People would read a few books, decide they liked the author, and buy the author's next book in hardcover when it was issued. The author's backlist saw a gratifying sales jump, too.
You may assume Tor is aware of it. Tor CEO Tom Doherty used to be Jim Baen's boss at Ace Books when Tom was publisher and Jim was editor, and they stayed friends and in touch when Jim set up his own shop. Tor actually had a deal to offer content via Baen's Webscriptions program for a bit, till someone in the Holtzbrink parent company nixed the plan because DRM would not be used.
I'd heard Holtzbrink changed it's mind on DRM, but I don't know the current status of the Baen/Tor deal.
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Dennis
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The last I've heard is that it's back with the lawyers and we should hear the results in Q2. As to Tom Doherty's personal beliefs on DRM and free e-books it should be remembered that he owns 1/3 of Baen so if he had a real problem with that he likely would have pulled his money out.
I do agree that the real benefit of free e-books comes from what it does to publicize authors.