January 19, 2004

We've added four new titles to the Library today:

David Weber and Eric Flint, 1633
David Drake, Lt. Leary, Commanding
Eric Flint and David Drake, The Tyrant
Murray Leinster, Med Ship

December 13, 2003

We've added five new titles to the Library today;

Shadow of the Lion, by Mercedes Lackey, Eric Flint and Dave Freer. This is the first volume in the Heirs of Alexandria series. The second volume, This Rough Magic, just came out in hardcover.

And four titles by Andre Norton:

Star Soldiers (Omnibus) contains
  Star Guard
  Star Rangers

TimeTraders (Omnibus) contains
  The Time Traders
  Galactic Derelict

Star Guard and Star Rangers are stand-alone novels. The Time Traders is the first novel in a series, the rest of which are available either in paper or electronic format in the Baen Books volumes Time Traders and Time Traders II. The novel The Time Traders itself—now here in the Library—is the first book contained in the Time Traders omnibus volume, which also contains the second novel in the series, Galatic Derelict. The omnibus volume Time Traders II contains the next two books in the series, The Defiant Agents and Key Out of Time.

We've added three new titles to the Library today:

Rosemary Edghill, Warslayer
Mercedes Lackey & Rosemary Edghill, Beyond World's End
Howard L. Myers, The Creatures of Man

A number of people have sent me letters recently asking me why it's been so long since I put up new titles in the Library. The last titles were put up over four months ago. That's a longer dry spell, I think, than any we've had since the Library opened.

The reason is simple: I've been very busy these past few months, partly with traveling but mostly with writing. Since the last "What's New," back in May, I've turned in two novels, a major anthology for which I'm the editor and also wrote the longest story—a short novel—and I'm on the verge of turning in another two novels and another anthology.

My point is simply to reassure everyone that we have no intention, as one letter asked me anxiously, to "shut down the Library." But, on the other hand, people also have to be willing to accept the commercial facts of life. The work gets done whenever the people involved—which is mainly me, but also involves the two professionals who do the nitty-gritty work, Arnold Bailey and Nancy Hanger—find the time to do it. This Library operates on no budget, and generates no income. Not directly, at any rate—and, unfortunately, my cash flow is determined by work I do which pays me now. Or, at least, within a few months. Alas, my creditors are singularly unwilling to accept a philosophical treatise on the long-term beneficial effects of a open policy regarding electronic publishing on an author's eventual income. The wretchit scoundrels want cash-on-the-barrel-head by the due date on the bills.

The main problem I face now, in terms of new acquisitions, is this:

For the most part, I've already gotten the cooperation of those authors who are readily willing to put something in the Library and who fit the criteria for it. Which, I will remind everyone—see Prime Palaver #2 for a much longer explanation—is that the book must have been published in a commercial paper edition (not self-published) and the electronic rights must either be held by the author or by Baen Books.

That's the reason, which I'm sure many users of the Library have noticed, that you tend to see the "usual suspects" re-appearing in the Library in the new acquisitions. The titles are new, yes, but the authors usually aren't. And the problem there is that writing a book takes months, so that relatively small number of authors simply don't produce enough for me to expand the Library every month.

The trick, now, obviously, is finding new authors. And that's... difficult. There are some exceptions; authors who approach me on their own and volunteer. But, for the most part, I've got to approach them.

That's time-consuming. It means a lot of letter-writing, most of which results in my being turned down. Yes, there are exceptions—such as Rosemary Edghill, who immediately agreed when I asked her. But that's unusual. For reasons which ought to be apparent, most writers are nervous about something like the Baen Free Library. I think their worries are groundless, quite obviously, or I wouldn't have so many of my own books in the Library. But whether the worries are groundless or not, they are inevitable—and I have to respect the authors' rights and decisions.

That's also, by the way, the reason I can't "farm out" this work to a volunteer. I've got to do it myself. Established authors are leery enough of such a proposal, even coming from another established author. If they got a letter from someone they've never heard of, their answer would almost certainly be "no." (Do you blame them? How many of you answer "yes" to the endless emails you get from people you've never heard of offering you a great opportunity?)

So, please just be patient. These things tend to run in cycles, by the way. I expect I'll have new titles in the Library within a few weeks. A four-month stretch with nothing new is unusual, and is due to my—even for me—exceedingly heavy work schedule this past spring and summer. But it will happen, from time to time, that I just can't get to it for a few months because of my own writing schedule. That doesn't mean I've forgotten about the Library or that it's shutting down.

To answer here another question asked in several letters, I do plan to write another Prime Palaver pretty soon. Again, the long hiatus there is simply due to my being too busy to get to it. That's compounded by the fact that the next essay I write will involve some hard figures regarding royalties, and assembling them is time-consuming. Publishers' royalty statements are designed to inform the writers of whatever money is owed to them for a specific book. They are not designed to provide ready-to-use statistical data. That means I've got to laboriously separate out the relevant figures, add them up, and analyze them myself. It all takes time, and for a writer even more than most people, time is money. My income does not derive from any kind of set and established salary. It is based entirely on what an industrial worker would call "piece work."

We've added several new titles to the Library today. Three novels:

Christopher Anvil, Pandora's Legions
David Drake, The Sea Hag
K.D. Wentworth, Stars Over Stars

And one anthology:

David Weber, Changer of Worlds

Changer of Worlds is the third of the Honor Harrington anthologies, and contains three stories by David Weber and one story by Eric Flint.
 

We've added several new titles to the Library today:

Eric Flint, The Philosophical Strangler
Dave Freer and Eric Flint, Pyramid Scheme
Keith Laumer, The Lighter Side

In addition to those three novels, we're starting a section of shorter fiction by Paul Chafe set in the Man-Kzin Wars universe created by Larry Niven. We're putting in Paul's most recent story, Windows of the Soul, today, and as we get earlier stories into electronic format we'll be adding them.

A couple of notes:

I'd like to bring everyone's attention to the link to "Webscriptions" which is at the very top of the Library's home page. I get letters of inquiry all the time asking me how people can either contribute money to the Library or obtain titles that are not in the Library. You can do either one through Webscriptions. If there's a title you liked in the Library and would like to pay for, you can find most of the Library's titles available for sale in Webscriptions in electronic format, usually for $4 or maybe $5.

This is not a requirement, you understand, for using the Library, not should anyone feel obligated to do so. But since a lot of people ask me how a "donation" could be made, I think this would be the simplest way. Also, as I said, you will find a lot more titles available for sale in Webscriptions than you will find for free in the Library.

Also, I want to make a comment on the numerous letters I get complaining (usually politely) about the infrequency with which I get titles added to the Library. This work happens—and only happens—when I have time for it. Obtaining new titles for the Library is fairly time-consuming, and I have a very heavy writing schedule of my own. Of course, it's not time-consuming when I can simply add titles from "the regular suspects" into the Library—as I did this month. But those can only be added when they become available, every few months. To obtain titles from new authors, I have to do a lot of work. To begin with, I'm primarily restricted to authors who've published through Baen, since I can't usually get the electronic rights from someone published by another publisher. (There are some exceptions, but they're few and far between.) Then, especially in the case of the older titles that authors usually want to put up, tracking down an electronic copy can be very time-consuming. Finally, perhaps the biggest problem is simply that a lot of authors are nervous about putting up titles in the Library in the first place, and decide not to do it. The problem for me is that trying to negotiate with new authors is usually time-consuming, and I just don't have much time available.

So, there it is. I'll keep expanding the Library as time and opportunity permit, but I've learned from hard experience that it goes more slowly than I'd like. However, I assure everyone that just because the Library doesn't get any new titles for a few months does not mean that it has become defunct. Just be patient, please—and do keep in mind that nobody is charging you a dime for this service.

November 29, 2002

We've add three new titles to the Library today:

      Linda Evans, Far Edge of Darkness

     Linda Evans, Sleipnir

     Duncan Long, Anti-Grav Unlimited

I'd also like to bring everyone's attention to the link to "WebScriptions" which is at the very top of the Library's home page. I get letters of inquiry all the time asking me how people can either contribute money to the Library or obtain titles that are not in the Library. You can do either one through Webscriptions. If there's a title you liked in the Library and would like to pay for, you can find most of the Library's titles available for sale in Webscriptions in electronic format, usually for $4 or maybe $5.

This is not a requirement, you understand, for using the Library, nor should anyone feel obligated to do so. But since a lot of people ask me how a "donation" could be made, I think this would be the simplest way. Also, as I said, you will find a lot more titles available for sale in Webscriptions than you will find for free in the Library.

 September 16, 2002

 It's been a while since we added anything new to the Library, since the summer's been very busy both for myself and the Baen staffers who do the technical work. However, I'm happy to announce that we're adding four new titles today:

 David Weber & John Ringo, March Upcountry

 Rick Cook, The Wizardry Compiled

 Keith Laumer, Odyssey

 David St. John, Sisters of Glass

The first three are Baen titles. David St. John's novel was published by Elderberry Press. We don't usually put up non-Baen titles, in order to avoid problems with other publishers. But in this instance, Dave owns the electronic rights free and clear. So when he asked me to put the book up in the Library, I agreed.

I've also added a new Prime Palaver (#11). This contains of an excellent article by the well-known singer Janis Ian regarding the issue of copyright infringement and related matters, which Janis gave me permission to "reprint" in the Library. I urge everyone to read it.

Linda Evans has also asked me to put up a couple of her older titles in the Library. (Specifically, Sleipnir and The Far Edge of Darkness.) We will do so as soon as possible, but it's probably going to take a while because those books came out some time ago and we'll need to track down and/or reformat the electronic edition.