"Dramatic growth in online book sales"
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
New York, NY - January 27, 2000
"An American science-fiction publisher releasing complete books online before they hit the bookstores is bidding to become the latest Internet success story.
Baen Books (http://www.baen.com) has been rushed by people signing up for its WebScriptions service, where readers pay $10 for an online package of four new-release books by major science fiction authors including David Weber, Eric Flint, Mercedes Lackey, Lois McMaster Bujold, James P. Hogan and David Drake.
CEO Jim Baen says sales of the company's fledging service doubled in December.
"We launched WebScriptions last September "in Beta", with virtually no promotion, as a service to Baen.Com habitues. Rather to our surprise over half the people who spend time on our bulletin board have plunked down their 10 bucks a month from day one: within a few weeks we had over 500 "Webscribers", and that with no promotion whatsoever except for talking among ourselves," Baen said.
"In December we emailed the 2000 people who had, over time, let us drop a cookie on their hard drive -- our very first use of this ability -- and our subscription base instantly doubled. So it was basically word-of-mouth, with the word being spread by the community of committed Baen readers who frequent our webboard."
Baen says one reason for the popularity of the service is its great value --$2.50 per book -- and another is the sense of community and "realtime" involvement; subscribers get to start reading the novels three months before they are released to bookstores, plus they get to talk about them ("Endlessly," Baen jokes) on the Baen.com bulletin board, which is called The Bar. (Habitues of course refer to themselves as "Bar Flies").
"The books are available in installments. Let's say you want to buy our new June releases. For $10 you get to read the first half of these books in March, the next quarter in April and the final installment in May, about two weeks before they are paper-published."
"In effect, subscribers get to read the bound galley version of the books until the final installment comes out. And they tell us that one of the reasons they like it is they get to see any early mistakes and pick up on any changes the author makes to the final version."
Baen says WebScriptions represents a return to the days when fans waited anxiously for the next installment in the science fiction story.
"We are trying to recreate the old-time Golden Age of SF magazines' experience on the Internet, complete with the excitement inherent in haunting the newstands waiting, waiting, waiting."
The online book service was established in response to reader demands, after Baen first started releasing chapters and then partial chapters ("snippets") from forthcoming books on its webboard.
"We were besieged with readers begging, pleading and willing to do almost anything just to get one more sneak preview of the latest in their favorite series, for example from Eric Flint or David Weber," Baen said.
"They'd be getting this copy still warm from the authors' word processor, long before the books were finished, and they kept wanting more and more and more."
"A lady lawyer even hauled me up before the Baen bar for a kangaroo trial for cruel and unusual snippeting. We settled out of court with WebScriptions."
Baen says that Webscribers claim that Webscribing actually increases the number of physical Baen books that they buy. About 80% want "hardcopies" of the titles they would have bought anyway, while they are also made aware of and so have to buy good many titles that might otherwise have escaped their attention.
"WebScriptions are popular with readers outside the US as well, as they often have to wait longer for the books to go on public sale and then pay more for them. We've got subscribers from a range of countries, including Canada, the UK, New Zealand, Australia, Sweden, the Philippines and Denmark."
Baen's authors have also welcomed the new service, both for the promotional value and because royalties (per sale) are about double that of on-paper versions of their books.
John Ringo, whose first Baen novel goes online in July as part of the October WebScriptions bundle (Baen is very enthusiastic about A Hymn Before Battle -- it will be the mass-market lead for the month) says he reads almost as much as he writes "and in my opinion it's the best deal since the invention of the paperback".
"Readers get four new release books a month for just $10," Ringo said.
"And you get to pick and choose which months you want to buy. The whole book is released online before it ever hits the stores. And before it gets finished editing. So you get to point out all my mistakes..."
Baen's webmaster Arnold Bailey says the potential for the online book service to expand is significant.
"We can now keep a book in print for as long as one could care to," Bailey said. "We get hundreds of messages from people begging for copies of this or that out of print book. In future, we might just refer them to WebScriptions.
"It might seem new now, but I'll bet that the day will come when an author will be insulted if he is not included in an WebScriptions package."
Jim Baen says while WebScriptions have proved to be a huge success, webboard subscribers continue to beg for sneak previews.
"Eventually we have to say 'no', but we have a lot of fun getting to that point.
"And do note that we aren't here to be fair or satisfy before the book-buying act; we want to drive our readers nuts. We want them to thank us for letting them spend their money. We like them to be hungry for a new book to come out." Baen claims he is joking about this part.
More seriously, Baen says the success of WebScriptions demonstrates yet again the potential of the Internet to open up new personal and professional opportunities, although he says he's not sure "it's legal to actually make money in e-publishing".
"Working in an infant industry is weird. Hardcopy publishing is about as mature as an industry gets, and it seems like every good idea has been used about to death. But with this e-publishing stuff, good ideas just litter the street."
For more information contact:
Jim Baen ph: 718-548-3100, email jimbaen@msn.com
Baen Books
5678 Riverdale Avenue,
Bronx, NY 10471 |
