Baen Free Library Changes

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The important thing for me is that the bundles will still continue to be available. If "limited availability" is what it takes to maintain that in the current market, then so be it.

Half a loaf and all that, yes.
But one potential issue is that the bundles have traditionally included previously-released titles so I'm wondering how the new rules will impact the bundle composition. For regular buyers those titles are likely dupes but for newcomers/irregulars they're extra value.

[pwalker8]

Baen Books has been struggling ever since Jim Baen died. I use to buy the monthly bundles each and every month simply because there was always at least one book that I wanted. November was the last bundle I bought and right now, it looks like March will be the next bundle. I think that Correia was the last new Baen author that I really liked. Jim Baen had a talent for spotting and developing new writers as well as a talent for connecting with the fan base.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by pwalker8

Baen Books has been struggling ever since Jim Baen died. I use to buy the monthly bundles each and every month simply because there was always at least one book that I wanted. November was the last bundle I bought and right now, it looks like March will be the next bundle. I think that Correia was the last new Baen author that I really liked. Jim Baen had a talent for spotting and developing new writers as well as a talent for connecting with the fan base.

I also frequently bought bundles in times past.
Lately there are months that NO titles appeal to me, let alone a few that would have my mouse heading to the buy button.

The monthly subject type mix is just not there
Baen still has quality stories, but they seemed to narrowed the focus on the target audience.

[Dahak]

BTW... the Baen Apocalypse run on my site (analogous to the run on Twinkies after the Hostess Apocalypse) is getting pretty impressive.

I'm shocked that the server has kept up. Historically, I start getting availability issues once traffic rises to over 75GB a day.

The last two days were the heaviest-trafficked days on the site in its seven and a half years: over 400GB (yes, with a G) each, the last two days (I've had whole months with less traffic than that).

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

I don't understand why the bundles are an issue at all. They are clearly a different product.

Sadly, nope, because they're made up of the single books. The site which shall not be named can see that the same books are up at 6+ for $18 and insist they be dropped to $3 or less each to match.

[gbm]

Originally Posted by Dahak

BTW... the Baen Apocalypse run on my site (analogous to the run on Twinkies after the Hostess Apocalypse) is getting pretty impressive.

I'm shocked that the server has kept up. Historically, I start getting availability issues once traffic rises to over 75GB a day.

The last two days were the heaviest-trafficked days on the site in its seven and a half years: over 400GB (yes, with a G) each, the last two days (I've had whole months with less traffic than that).

Joe:

I checked my router on Thursday after I finished downloading all the cds, December is going to be my biggest month for bandwidth ever.

Just Wednesday and Thursday would be the second biggest if they were a month.


bernie

[Blue Tyson]

Originally Posted by cromag

I love the classics! Get the Keith Laumer, James H. Schmitz, Christopher Anvil, etc.

But (and I have no inside info here) as older titles these may be safe for the future. Still, it doesn't take much time to download them to a little flash drive. Just to be safe.

Yep.

Another thing Amazon's personal document storage is good for.

[gstew]

Based on what Toni posted here:

Originally Posted by gbm

Toni Weisskopf--the publisher of Baen Books--just posted this in her forum at Baen's Bar:





Update



Update II:
12/07/2012





Update III:
12/07/2012





Update IV:

Toni said this about the Monthly Baen Bundles:



Soon--I say sometime next week--the only bundles will be the ones that are not yet in the book stores as print editions.

So if their are Monthly Baen Bundles that you want, buy now.


bernie

*Baen Free Library

I bet that those bundles they currently offer, like the "Fafhrd and Grey Mouser Collection" by Fritz Lieber, a $62 value for $35, will disappear soon too!

I have several of these in my wish list. I wasn't planning to spend $200 or so on a group of rereads, but I may have to rethink that quickly tonight!

DANG!

First Fictionwise/EReader, now this!

Greg in Mississippi

[ucfgrad93]

I got the first 2 books in the Honor Harrington series for free at Baen. I have purchased the next 2 books in the series for $5 each. I'll probably get the rest at the same price before they go up.

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by ucfgrad93

I got the first 2 books in the Honor Harrington series for free at Baen. I have purchased the next 2 books in the series for $5 each. I'll probably get the rest at the same price before they go up.

Go to the Fifth Imperium site here and download the Mission of Honor (#22) CD zip. It has most of the series for free. Legally.

However it may not be there by the middle of the week, so go now.

[Loosheesh]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

Go to the Fifth Imperium site here and download the Mission of Honor (#22) CD zip. It has most of the series for free. Legally.

However it may not be there by the middle of the week, so go now.

Stupid question: how do you access the books? Do you have to burn the files to a CD?

[Lemurion]

There are no stupid questions, only questions it would be a mistake not to ask. If you download the .iso version, then you should either burn it to a disc or use disc-mounting software such as WinCDEmu. If you download the .zip, you just have to unzip it with your regular unzipping software (both Windows and OS X come with unzipping functionality).

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Lemurion

There are no stupid questions, only questions it would be a mistake not to ask. If you download the .iso version, then you should either burn it to a disc or use disc-mounting software such as WinCDEmu. If you download the .zip, you just have to unzip it with your regular unzipping software (both Windows and OS X come with unzipping functionality).

WinRAR and other archiver apps treat ISO files as if they were zips, too.
No need to burn a CD.

[Lemurion]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

WinRAR and other archiver apps treat ISO files as if they were zips, too.
No need to burn a CD.

I prefer 7-Zip to WinRAR as it's open source and freeware.

[DrNefario]

Or in MacOS you just double-click and it mounts the ISO as a drive. (Although I was slightly caught out by one of David Weber's books having a name that's too long for MacOS to cope with sensibly.)