Jim Baen
Jim Baen died yesterday. For those of you—probably many—who don’t know who he was, he was a long-time SF editor and publisher. I never met him. Nor did I ever hear him speak, or see him at a convention, or even trade e-mails with someone who knew him personally.
But for many years, Jim Baen has been part of a secret dream of mine—a dream I’ve had since I started writing in earnest.
I grew up reading Science Fiction (I still call it SciFi sometimes, but the shibboleth among “true” fans is to call it SF. Feh! I’ll call it what I like, you snobs). I started with Frank Herbert and Piers Anthony. I quickly moved to H. Beam Piper, Isaac Asimov, Poul Anderson, and others. I read Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle together, and then all the books they wrote by themselves.
I came to Robert Heinlein late in life (in college, although I read Friday when I was in high school). I read Harry Turtledove and Ben Bova. I read Fred Saberhagen and Harlan Ellison. I read Orson Scott Card, of course. And I read a bunch of authors you’ve probably never heard of, like Dean Ing, Glen Cook, and too many others to list.
I read anything I could get my hands on, from space opera to “hard” SF.
When I discovered David Drake, I found my true love: military SF. I quickly bought up all the Drake books I could find, reading non-stop sometimes. I discovered Eric Flint and read all his books. I found David Weber and devoured the Honor Harrington books. And lately, I’ve been reading John Ringo.
If you followed any of the links in the previous paragraph, you ended up at one place: Baen Books.
From everything I heard, Jim Baen was a true patron of new SF writers. He nurtured them. He groomed them. He promoted them. And most importantly, he published their books.
Most of you know that I want to be a professional writer someday. Well, I’m a “professional” writer now, but I still have a day job to pay the bills (since writing erotica doesn’t pay very well… yet). A major tenet of writing is “write what you know.” Well, no one truly knows faster-than-light travel or alien planets, but I think I “know” them as well as anyone can. So I always harbored this dream of writing SciFi (see? I still call it that).
And part of my dream of being a SciFi writer is that I’d publish a book with Baen Books, with Jim Baen. It was a pretty lofty goal, I’ll admit, but David Drake, Eric Flint, David Weber, and John Ringo used to have day jobs too, and Jim Baen turned them into authors (not just guys who were writing in their spare time).
I’d like to think that I’ve honed my writing skills in the past three years. I’ve been writing in the toughest market there is—the internet—where free stories are a dime a dozen, and are usually pure dreck. The fact that people keep coming back to read what I write gives me hope. I know I’m a pretty good writer: better than most, but not nearly as good as the best. Like I said, I have my dreams.
But one of my dreams died yesterday.
Now, I can still publish with Baen Books. As a matter of fact, I sincerely hope that someone continues Jim Baen’s legacy, and does what he did for the next generation of SF writers. But I know that it’ll never be the same without Jim Baen himself.
I never knew him, but I miss him already.
- Nick
Comments
7 Responses to “Jim Baen”
Leave a Reply
“I never knew him, but I miss him already.” - Nick Scipio.
“You and me both”, he said ungrammatically but with feeling.
- Steve, quoting R. A. Heinlein. It seemed to fit.
Thanks for telling us. Jim Baen accomplished as much as most of us can hope for: when he died, someone noticed.
Never heard of Dean Ing? Hell, I own a copy of everything he’s ever written!
Nick, you are well into the top 5% of writers. If you weren’t, we wouldn’t all keep bitchin’ about “Christy” and “Nereids”.
If you like John Ringo, try Tom Kratman. Army LTC, Instructor at the War College, and all the BTDT creds. “A State of Disobidience” is scarry. And possible. And we’re heading that way.
Like you, I came to Science Fiction early - a friend of my Father loaned me a set of the “Null A” novels when I was about 6. Been hooked ever since.
Most of the “modern” authors seem to have been given their start by Jim Baen. He and his influence will be sorely missed. Requiat am Pacem, and thanks.
Military sci-fi isn’t much different from what you’re writing now. One is “plot, plot, sex scene, plot, plot, sex scene.” The other is “plot, plot, battle scene, plot, plot, battle scene.” It’s Combat Porn, pure and simple.
I didn’t even know what he looked like until today but I knew I liked him. I read the news of his passing in a Jim Baen’s “Universe” email. Talk about rocking you back on your heels. I hope someone at Baen will try to carry on in his style. I buy ebooks packaged by the month and I like getting a big name bundled with someone I never read. It is pretty cool “discovering” a writer that Jim saw promise in.
If you decide to share any of your SciFi writings I’ll be in line for a copy. Even more so after your kind words for Jim Baen.
Thanks,
Chuck Clements
Nick,
Jim Baen, and a whole bunch of the scifi greats have left us, but they have left us with a legacy. and a challenge.
Like you I started reading the classics and I think that their influence on us is much greater that they know. I the space of my lifetime we have followed Athur C Clark into space (have you read the short story brick moon?).
We have been following the rest of your favorute authors since then. Do you think that calling the first shuttle Enterprise was an accident?
Jim Baen followed the traditions of John w Campbell and amazing stories. Nurturing new writers, making them authors, leading the way.
He proved that electronic publishing could pay, leading the way to the web based publishing.
Finding out that you are one of the scifi family gives me one more reason to explain why I like your stories. I believe in the future, and you like most of the scifi greats seem to hold the belief that there will be a future, and that even of we must struggle we will be better off.
I look forward, eagerly, to the day I can buy and download a scifi story, one of yours, from Baen Books.
Lets hope that I can do that soon.
Paul
Calling the first shuttle “Enterprise” was the stupidest thing science fiction fans have ever done.
The first shuttle was never going to go into space. It was going to be called the Constitution, until the Trekkies started sending letters.
The shuttle that was eventually named Discovery was going to be Enterprise.
Never heard of Dean Ing? Hell, I was AT Oshkosh 93 when the Butcher Bird attacked
(Spooker kinda sucked, though)
BTW, Nick, if you ever want to see an X-COR engine fire, let me know