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This article is about the company Webscriptions and it's integral website webscriptions.net an e-publisher often confused with a related service called "Baen's Webscriptions", which is related as it is a "customer" of and user of Webscriptions, but which is misunderstood by many to be a subsidiary or part of publishing house Baen's Books, but is in fact an independent enterprise—albeit, one closely associated as is part of the subject matter below. Baen Books is an American Publishing company established in 1983 by long time Science Fiction publisher and editor Jim Baen. Baen Books is an American Publishing company established in 1983 by long time Science Fiction publisher and editor Jim Baen.
Currently, listed genre publishers are:
1632.org
Baen Books
Del Rey
Meisha Merlin
SRM Publisher
Subterranean Press
Tor Books

Webscriptions was originally an e-publishing experiment organized both to test the e-publishing market place and as a test of Jim Baen's controversial assumptions in Digital Rights Management (DRM) launched by arrangement (contract, not jointly) in 1999 by Jim Baen, publisher and editor-in-chief of Baen Books together with his web services consultant and provider Arnold Bailey, of Webwrights1, the principal company of which is a computer services business that in this manner also came to sell e-books of books, becoming in essence, an e-publisher by customer request. Baen Books is an American Publishing company established in 1983 by long time Science Fiction publisher and editor Jim Baen. Meisha Merlin Publishing was an independent Publishing company founded in 1996 by Stephen Pagel Kevin Murphy and Brian Murphy Subterranean Press is a Small press publisher in Michigan. Subterranean is best known for publishing genre fiction primarily horror, Suspense Tor Books is one of two Imprints of Tom Doherty Associates LLC based in New York City Electronic publishing includes the digital publication of E-books and Electronic articles and the development of digital libraries and catalogues James Patrick "Jim" Baen ( October 22, 1943 Pennsylvania – June 28, 2006 Raleigh North Carolina) was a noted Digital rights management ( DRM) is a generic term that refers to Access control technologies used by hardware manufacturers publishers and Copyright holders Baen Books is an American Publishing company established in 1983 by long time Science Fiction publisher and editor Jim Baen. A business (also called firm or an enterprise) is a legally recognized organizational entity designed to provide goods and/or services to An e-book (for electronic book: also ebook) is the Digital media equivalent of a conventional printed Book. A Book is a set or collection of written printed illustrated or blank sheets made of Paper, Parchment, or other material usually fastened together

Baen's stance on DRM is simple, and at odds with most distributors of intellectual content, including the music industry: Provide good materials at a reasonable and fair price, encryption discourages use and purchase, so none of that, and the same for copy protection. Hence Bailey, accommodating his customer came to offer five common e-formats including some which are word processor compatible. Further, once you've purchased the item, you can return and download it again at any later time, even in a different format.

Webscription services

Copyrights and
Digital Object Identifiers (DOI)
Under copyright law, an author sells not the whole rights to a work, but the specific rights of a work to the initial publisher. A digital object identifier ( DOI) is a permanent identifier given to an Electronic document. Specifically, in the fiction marketplace, the author retains "Second and subsequent reprint rights" (unless of course other rights are constrained by the purchase contract—most publishers will also at least buy an option on paperback rights when publishing a hardcover, for example), meaning she can license those to another publisher in a separate original work. A hardcover (or hardback or hardbound) is a Book bound with rigid protective covers (typically of cardboard covered with Cloth
Original works over the years have been construed to mean in other formats and bindings. An e-published work is bound about as differently as one can imagine. This is why copyrights, at least in Baen printed works that first appeared as e-books such as Grantville Gazette I , a copyright credit line says "Electronic edition by Webwrights". The Grantville Gazette (later Grantville Gazette I or more recently yet Grantville Gazette Volume 1) is the first of a series of
Webscription and DOIs
Early webscripton copyrighted works used the DOI system, but according to Arnold Baily, a change in the item registration process made the use of the system cost prohibitive, for essentially one DOI had to be paid for each of the five common formats desired by Baen's, plus the serialized e-ARC partial (serialized) monthly packages (now in their ninth year). A digital object identifier ( DOI) is a permanent identifier given to an Electronic document. Baen Books is an American Publishing company established in 1983 by long time Science Fiction publisher and editor Jim Baen. Consequently, Webscriptions abandoned DOI's for Skew codes, which appear in much the same format and have a same originator prefix as their early valid DOI's, but use the prefix: "SKU:".
On Baen's website, later Identification codes still carry the "DOI:" prefix, but are adaptations of the ISBN of the work. As noted, Baen's electronic works are provided by Webscriptions, managed and maintained by Webwrights, and hence neither companies seemingly DOI codes will or can be identified by the DOI registraton database. Moreover, same formated versoions on either service would have to have the same DOI, which is also not true, though it amy have been true at one time.

Webscriptions is owned and operated by Webwrights, a company which also runs Baen Books' website and the Baen's conference website Baen's Bar. Baen Books is an American Publishing company established in 1983 by long time Science Fiction publisher and editor Jim Baen. Initially, the e-books offered were solely titles published by Baen Books, but in recent years webwrights, Inc. has picked up titles from other publishers and publishing houses as the Electronic marketing strategy adopted by Jim Baen and his company proved it's worth and hardcopy sales increased considerably. Baen Books is an American Publishing company established in 1983 by long time Science Fiction publisher and editor Jim Baen. James Patrick "Jim" Baen ( October 22, 1943 Pennsylvania – June 28, 2006 Raleigh North Carolina) was a noted Other publishers had to take note. At the same time, the e-business income raised revenues for publishers, and indirectly increased Baen Books's market share, particularly by increasing the number of hardcover books sold per release. A hardcover (or hardback or hardbound) is a Book bound with rigid protective covers (typically of cardboard covered with Cloth Part of that growth, is due to the Baen Free Library which was launched nearly hand in hand with Baen's new e-books. The Baen Free Library is a Digital library of the Science fiction and Fantasy Publishing house Baen Books where (as of February 2007 The Baen Free Library is just that—about 100 titles that can be downloaded at no charge from Webscriptions in the same unprotected formats, allowing the customer to sample the wares, or read it as if found in the local public lending library.


The North Carolina company that operates webscriptions, Webwrights, is a separate business entity that also does internet services consulting for fees. One of the services it provides is it manages and operates the popular internet forum Baen's Bar. Baen Books is an American Publishing company established in 1983 by long time Science Fiction publisher and editor Jim Baen. In the strictest sense, Webscriptions really refers to the Baen Books decision to bundle parts of 4–5 books per month as e-ARC releases purchased as a subscription. Baen Books is an American Publishing company established in 1983 by long time Science Fiction publisher and editor Jim Baen. [1] "Webscriptions. net" is the Baen Books entry point into the Webwrights operated e-publisher "Webscriptions" (dot net). [2]

Baen's Webscriptions' primary goal was to increase sales of normal books at the time when majority considered that making an e-book available would crash the market for books. Sao Paulo Stock Exchangejpg|thumb| Virtual market arena where buyer and seller are not present and trade via intemediates and electronical information According to the declarations of people involved with this project[1], most notably Eric Flint[2] whom Baen referred to as "Baen's Bulldog" on DRM rights issues, it has proven to be a significant success, increasing Baen's sales of printed books as well as generating additional income from e-books, which are "technically" published by webwrights, not Baen's. Eric Flint (born 1947 is an American Alternate history and Fantasy author, editor, and e-publisher. Digital rights management ( DRM) is a generic term that refers to Access control technologies used by hardware manufacturers publishers and Copyright holders An e-book (for electronic book: also ebook) is the Digital media equivalent of a conventional printed Book.

The success of the site through the "Baen's filter or front-end" has also been described by New York Times. The project has been called 'innovative' by Wired[3] and New York Times and met with generally positive reception from many authors (examples: Charles Stross [4], David Drake [5]) and general public[6]. Wired is a full-color monthly American Magazine and on-line periodical published in San Francisco, California since March 1993 Charles David George "Charlie" Stross (born Leeds, 18 October 1964 is a writer based in Edinburgh, Scotland. David Drake (born September 24, 1945) is an author of Science fiction and Fantasy literature Baen currently is following the Webscriptions with another experiment in online publishing - an online subscription based sci-fi magazine, Jim Baen's Universe, which non-subscribers can purchase single copies through Webscriptions. Jim Baen's Universe (JBU is a bimonthly online fantasy and Science fiction magazine created by Jim Baen (founder and long-time publisher This follows the experimental [e-zine] that is now paying Pro-rates, The Grantville Gazettes, and Eric Flint, Baen's Bulldog on DRM matters, is editor-in-chief of both entities. See also Baen's Bar, 1632 Editorial Board, 1632 series The Grantville Gazettes are a set of Collaborative writing works Additionally, through an arrangement set up with Jim Baen, all the Baen titles at webscriptions are free to the disabled[7], though this does not hold for other publishers contracted with Bailey's webwrights. Bailey himself is inclined to favor DRM policies at odds with those of Flint, the late Jim Baen, or current editor in-chief and publisher at Baen's Books, Toni Weisskopf. Toni Weisskopf (born 1965 is a Science fiction editor and the publisher of Baen Books.

Webscriptions is different from most other online e-book selling ventures in that books are sold individually as well as in the Baen Webscriptions bundled and serialized packets of four or five books together. Webscriptions keeps the Baen bundles available on line, though the subscription price is slightly better—an incentive perhaps from the publisher to commit, but one which Baen barflies argued should be priced higher—an interesting demand from customers to say the least—Jim Baen eventually complied. Baen Books is an American Publishing company established in 1983 by long time Science Fiction publisher and editor Jim Baen.

Each month, four to six as of yet unpublished works are made available for purchase as a group. The books are released incrementally. Three months before their official release date, only the first half of the books are available for download. Two months before their official release, the first three quarters of the books are available. The complete books are available for download a month before they are released in paper form.

Note that while the books are only partially available ('Advanced Readers Copy'), the only download format is HTML, however once the books are complete, they can be downloaded in multiple e-book formats including Rocketbook, RTF, Mobipocket, Microsoft Reader, and HTML. HTML, an initialism of HyperText Markup Language, is the predominant Markup language for Web pages It provides a means to describe the structure An e-book (for electronic book: also ebook) is the Digital media equivalent of a conventional printed Book. Mobipocket SA is a French company incorporated in March 2000 which produces Mobipocket Reader software a universal reader for PDAs. Microsoft Reader is a Microsoft program for reading of E-books Microsoft Reader is available for download from Microsoft as a free program HTML, an initialism of HyperText Markup Language, is the predominant Markup language for Web pages It provides a means to describe the structure None of the e-books has any Digital Rights Management parts. Digital rights management ( DRM) is a generic term that refers to Access control technologies used by hardware manufacturers publishers and Copyright holders This has caused some concerns among certain publishers and authors. Tor Books began making books available via Webscriptions in March 2006, but pulled it within days because of pressure from the owning group, Holtzbrinck because of concerns regarding the lack of DRM, over Tor Books' protests. Tor Books is one of two Imprints of Tom Doherty Associates LLC based in New York City Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck is a Stuttgart -based Publishing holding company which owns publishing companies worldwide Tor Books is one of two Imprints of Tom Doherty Associates LLC based in New York City [8] The matter was satisfactorily resolved though, and TOR joined DAW as the third large science-fiction publisher using the services. [3]

References and Notes

External links

Notes

  1. ^ Baen webscriptions FAQ page. Charles David George "Charlie" Stross (born Leeds, 18 October 1964 is a writer based in Edinburgh, Scotland. David Drake (born September 24, 1945) is an author of Science fiction and Fantasy literature Retrieved on 2007-12-06. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1060 - Béla I of Hungary is crowned king of Hungary 1240 - Mongol invasion of Rus: Kiev
  2. ^ Rick Boatright. baen relationship stuff. Retrieved on 2007-12-06. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1060 - Béla I of Hungary is crowned king of Hungary 1240 - Mongol invasion of Rus: Kiev  “"webscriptions is Arnold Bailey's company. He has a contract with Baen to provide web services to Baen, to provide the production process for webscriptions, to take the money for webscriptions and pays baen their cut of the take. Arnold keeps a percentage, which I know, but don't think I'm authorized to share, off the top of the webscriptions sales. In exchange for that, he runs the bar, runs and develops Baen's other web sites, and runs the free library stuff. "”
  3. ^ [http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6482534.html?nid=2286&source=title&rid=1906489783 Publishers weekly, "Tor Inks Deal", September 2007, accessed:2007-12-10
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