Baen Ebooks FAQ
- Who is Baen Books?
- Baen Ebooks sells DRM-free Ebooks in seven downloadable formats. We sell over 1,000 science fiction and fantasy Ebooks and feature over 250 authors published by 11 different publishing companies. We add at least four new Ebooks every month!
- What is Baen Ebooks' DRM policy?
- Baen is committed to remaining free of Digital Rights Management (DRM).
- All of Baen's Ebooks available on its Baen Ebookstore are DRM-free and available worldwide. Once you purchase one of our Ebooks, you can download it as many times as you would like, in as many of the seven formats we provide, for as many Ereaders as you'd like.
- Purchasing an Ebook
- What payment methods does Baen Ebooks accept?
- Baen Ebooks accepts the following payment types:
- • Credit Card- Master Card, Visa, Discover, or American Express
- • Paypal
- • Certified Check/Money Order- No personal or foreign currency checks are accepted
- • MicroPay store credit
- I paid via Paypal but I can't access my Ebook!
- Paypal may delay clearing the transaction immediately so you might have to wait a day or two while they verify the purchase. Please be patient.
- I'm having trouble using a Gift Card issued by a credit card company. Can you help?
- Here are a few things to double check before using a gift card issued by a credit card company on our Web site:
- • Is the card expired?
- • Is your total more than your gift card?
- • Is your card registered? Contact the gift card's issuer to register your name, address, and phone number affiliated with the billing address on your Baen Ebooks account so our fraud prevention software does not decline the transaction. You can register your card using the number provided in your card's documentation or by visiting their Web site.
- Unfortunately, our fraud prevention software does decline some gift cards even if you have done everything correctly. It's the downside to keeping our customers protected. If this happens, please use another payment method to complete your Baen Ebooks order.
What is MicroPay? How does it work?
Baen Ebooks Gift Card
- What is a Baen Ebooks Gift Card?
- Baen Gift Cards are digital gift certificates that can be used to purchase any Ebook in our library.
- What denominations are available for purchase?
- Baen Ebooks Gift Cards can be purchased in preloaded amounts of:
- •$5.00
- •$10.00
- •$25.00
- •$50.00
- •$100.00
- •$250.00
- •$500.00
- •$1,000.00
- You can purchase multiple quantities of each increment on a single order.
- How can I purchase a Baen Ebooks Gift Card?
- 1. Visit our Gift Card section by clicking "Gift Cards" under the yellow categories section on the left-hand navigation menu.
- 2. Click on the image of the Gift Card or the "More Information" button.
- 3. Select the pre-loaded amount you wish to order and the quantity.
- 4. Click "Add to Cart" to place the Gift Card in your Shopping Cart.
- 5. When you're ready to complete your order, select "Checkout Now" on your Shopping Cart
- 6. You will be asked for your Recipient's Name, Recipient's Email Address, and to include a brief message for your gift recipient.
- 7. After filling out the Gift Card Email form, complete the ordering process as normal. Your Gift Card Recipient will receive the Gift Card via email.
- How do I redeem a Baen Ebooks Gift Card?
- 1. Select an Ebook you'd like to purchase and place it in your Shopping Cart.
- 2. Click "Shopping Cart" under your name at the top of your screen.
- 3. Scroll down underneath the books in your cart and you'll see a section (in bold yellow letters) called "Coupon or Gift Card." In the box, enter the alphanumeric claim code the gift certificate came with.
- 4. Select "Update Cart." The remaining total should reflect the Ebook purchase amount minus the Gift Card balance.
- 5. Follow the checkout process as normal.
Where can I find my Gift Card redemption code?
- Your Gift Card redemption code is the alphanumeric "claim code" found in the upper right hand corner of the Gift certificate email.
My Ebooks are missing! Why can’t I purchase certain Ebooks? Information about reverted rights.
- After a certain period, the rights to a book revert back to the author from the publisher. At that point, the author can choose the next step for his or her work, which sometimes means that Baen Ebooks can no longer offer it for sale. In most cases, any book that you have already purchased should remain accessible to you through your account.
- We recommend all customers to keep backups of their purchased Ebooks as it is not always possible for us to host Ebooks after their rights are reverted. Further, we cannot always give advance notice when a book’s rights will be reverted.
- If you can no longer access a purchased Ebook, email us with your Baen Ebooks email address and the original order number. You can contact us by clicking on the “Contact Technical Support” question at the bottom of this page.
- We apologize for any inconvenience. Note that if a particular book you are looking for has become unavailable on our site, you might be able to find it for sale elsewhere.
When is Baen Ebooks updated with new content?
- Baen Ebooks that are part of the Monthly Baen Bundle program are released on the 16th of each month, one month before the official month of publication. Thus, books scheduled for a February mass-market publication will be available for purchase on BaenEbooks.com by mid-January.
- Note: eARCS and Ebooks published by other publishers may follow a different release schedule.
- Where can I find your publishing schedule?
- Are your Ebooks compatible with my Ereader?
- You can download and enjoy our Ebooks in seven DRM-free formats:
- • HTML (.htm)– Read this online or download and enjoy on your computer
- • Ebookwise/Rocket (.rb)– Read on your Rockbook Ereader
- • Mobi/Palm/Kindle (.mobi)– Read on your Kindle or Palm PDA devices
- • EPUB/Nook/Stanza (.epub)– Read on your Apple, Nook, or Android devices
- • Microsoft Reader (.lit)
- • Sony Digital Reader (.lrf)
- • RTF (.rtf)– Compatible with popular word processing programs like Microsoft Word, WordPad, and TextEdit
- At this time the Schlock Mercenary Bundle and the individual titles that comprise it are the only Ebooks we provide in PDF format. We've extensively considered PDF format for Baen Ebooks. However, Baen Ebooks does not currently plan to offer it for collections other than the Schlock Mercenary comics.
- I bought an Ebook. Where do I go to download it?
- Here are three easy ways you can access your purchased Ebooks:
- Order History
- 1. Click the "Your Account" link below your name at the top of the screen. You'll be taken to your account page.
- 2. Click the blue "View Your Order/Billing History" link or scroll down to see your order history.
- 3. You can download your books individually or grouped by orders.
- My Books
- 1. Click the "My Books" link on the left side of the page under the Categories section.
- 2. Click the cover image, the title, or the "Download" link for purchased Ebook you'd like to download. You'll be taken to the product page where you will find a list of download links.
- Download Link Email
- You can also wait to receive your download link email that accompanies every purchase. In this email you will see a list of the Ebooks you purchased with a direct link to their product pages (under the links to individual books section). Click on the purchased Ebook you'd like to download (either the cover image, the title, or the "Download" link), and you'll be taken to the product page where you will find a list of download links.
- The link in my Download Instructions email won't work!
- There are two likely reasons the link in your Download Instructions email won't work:
- •You aren't logged in– Verify you're logged into Baen Ebooks.com before you click on a download link in your Download Instructions email. Can't tell if you're logged in? You'll see "Welcome, <your name here>" in yellow text at the top right-hand corner of the Baen Ebooks page if you are successfully logged into our Web site.
- •You're using an old email– Download Instructions emails sent before our site redesign that contains links with "webscription.net" in the URL may not work. Please log onto the Web site and use your order history or "My Books" link to access your Ebooks.
I downloaded a zipped file, what do I do now?
- If you download the compressed, zipped version of our Ebooks, make sure you unzip the files before opening or transferring the files to your Ereader. On PCs we recommend WinZip. No program is needed on Macs as the extraction software is built into the OS.
I just got a new Ereader; can I redownload all of my previous purchases in bulk?
- At this time, there isn't a way to download all the Ebooks in your library at once. Usually, this does mean you will have to redownload your Ebooks one at a time.
- However, if you purchased more than one Ebook per order, your order history allows you to save a lot of time by redownloading Ebooks in batches. To do this, follow these steps:
- 1. Navigate to our Web site, BaenEbooks.com, and log into your account.
- 2. Underneath your name at the top of the page, click on "Your Account"
- 3. Click the blue "View Your Order/Billing History" Link at the top or scroll down to the yellow lettered section entitled "Order History."
- 4. Next to each Order you will see a blue "Download Order" link. Click that button.
- 5. You will be taken to a page where you will have the option of what format to download.
- 6. Select the format to download and the entire order will download at once.
I need help loading my Ebook onto my Ereader!
Monthly Baen Bundles
- What are Monthly Baen Bundles?
- A Monthly Baen Bundle contains Ebook editions of all the books Baen publishes on paper that month. These bundles normally contain between six and eight Ebooks and are much cheaper than buying the Ebooks individually.
- What's the benefit of purchasing an Ebook that's part of the Monthly Baen Bundle?
- Purchasing a Monthly Baen Bundle early entitles you to the following benefits:
- • A cost savings of at least the price of one Ebook!
- • Pre-release access to books prior to their mass-market publication!
- • At least four titles new to Baen Ebooks
- • 4-8 exciting Baen Ebooks in one bundled purchase
- How much is a Monthly Baen Bundle?
- A monthly Baen Bundle costs $18 per month. This payment entitles you to the entirety of all Ebooks included in that month's bundle, no matter when you purchased the bundle.
- How does the Monthly Baen Bundle Program work?
- Each novel is published in three segments, one month apart, beginning three months before the actual publication date. Each month, several books are available. For each month purchased, you receive access to a directory containing these books.
- Four months before publication, the Ebook is listed as Forthcoming.
- Three months before publication, you gain access to the first Half of the books in HTML format.
- Two months before publication, you gain access to the first Three Quarters of the books in HTML format.
- One month before publication, you receive full access to the final quarter in all seven DRM-free formats, completing the books.
- About two weeks after the last quarter is delivered to that month's Monthly Baen Ebook subscribers, bookstores around the country will begin to stock these titles (if the book is new).
- How do I tell much of an Ebook in this month's bundle is currently available?
- In order to tell how much of an Ebook is currently available in a certain month's bundle, go to the Monthly Baen Bundle page, and underneath each book title in red, you will see either Half or Three-Quarters. No red text means the full version has been posted. You will not need to pay any additional money when the full version is posted.
- Why do some Monthly Baen Bundle months repeat books?
- When we repeat Ebooks, it's because those books have been rereleased in print—usually in paperback, a second edition, etc.—so we are also featuring them on our Web site. The $18 price point may not seem like such a deal if there are Ebooks you already own included, however, when considering at least half of the Ebooks are still new to Baen Ebooks, you are still saving the price of one Ebook.
- How many Ebooks are guaranteed new in each Monthly Baen Bundle?
- We guarantee that at each Monthly Baen Bundle will feature at least four Ebooks new to the Baen Ebookstore.
- Note: An omnibus reprint of several older books counts as a new book, as does a book published in the past by another publisher, but coming out under the Baen name for the first time.
- Can I buy Monthly Baen Bundles from previous months?
- As of December 16, 2012, you can only buy monthly bundles prior to their publication date. For example, the March 2013 Monthly Baen Bundle will only be available for purchase until February 15, 2013.
- I purchased a "Forthcoming," "Half," or "Three-Quarters" version of an Ebook and it's full of mistakes!
- Most likely, we only have the eARC text available at this time. The "non-ARC" version is not available to us until roughly a month before publication date. Until we get the final text (then converted and uploaded), we use the text from the ARC for the Sample chapters and Baen Ebook Monthly Bundle quarters.
eARCs
- What is an eARC?
- An eARC is an Advance Reader Copy. This is an unproofed manuscript and is guaranteed to be full of typos and error. It is pretty much raw from the author's word processor. But you get the entire eARC well in advance of even the Monthly Baen Bundle release.
- Do eARCs include the final proofed version?
- No. If you would like to read and enjoy the final proofed version, you must purchase that separately.
- Why is an eARC more expensive than the regular book?
- We offer the ARC at a $15 price point because not only are they exactly how the author wrote them, but they are available well in advance of the official publication.
- Why can't I buy this eARC anymore (listed as "Not Currently Available")?
- At this time, eARCs and other unproofed copies are only available for purchase until the final text is released. They remain on our Web site so people who purchased the eARCs are still able to access them.
- I found a typo in the eARC! Would it be helpful if I sent you corrections before the final version is released?
- The initial segments of the books will typically be un-proofed copy similar to galley copies. That's what we are doing during those three months, proofing and passing copies back and forth for approvals. Please don't send us long lists of corrections.
- The final segment release will refresh the entire book with the final proofed copy as sent to the publisher. We still don't guarantee zero mistakes.
Grantville Gazette
- Can you explain the Grantville Gazette naming convention?
- Originally, the Grantville Gazettes were numbered using roman numerals, but when Baen Ebooks began printing the best of compilations, the exclusively online volumes shifted from roman numerals to numbers. This naming was not updated with the earlier volumes.
- I want to purchase some of the Grantville Gazette Ebooks, but I already have all of the mass-market paperbacks published to date. At what point do the Ebooks contain material that is exclusively online?
- The first four paper editions of the Grantville Gazette were simply print versions of the first four issues of the electronic magazine by the same name. Beginning with the fifth paper edition, however, we realized that we couldn't maintain the same system. Starting in May of 2007, the Gazette e-magazine started publishing on a regular bimonthly schedule, and it soon became obvious that Baen Books couldn't possibly keep up with the volume of stories being produced. So, beginning with Grantville Gazette V, the anthologies consist of the best stories selected from half a dozen issues of the magazine.
- For example, Volume 5 of the Gazette is the fifth issue of the exclusively online magazine, while Volume V is actually a compilation of stories from the exclusively online magazines. The same is true for Volume 6 and Volume VI.
Schlock Mercenary
- Why are the Schlock Mercenary comics only available as PDFs?
- In an attempt to do justice to Howard Tayler's art, we only offer our Schlock Mercenary titles in PDF format. This format allows the best possible ereading experience by allowing our customers to enjoy high quality, uncompromised images.
- I just bought a Schlock Mercenary Ebook, but the download link provided in my email won't work! What do I do?
- Due to their large file size, the Schlock Mercenary PDFs aren't currently offered as order ZIP files. A traditional "Download Order" link is generated when you order Schlock Mercenary Ebooks from Baen Ebooks, but no download ZIP is created if a non-PDF Ebook was purchased in the order. Please only use the PDF links provided on the individual Ebooks' product pages.
- Use the following links to navigate to the Schlock Mercenary Ebooks product pages:
- The Tub of Happiness
- The Teraport Wars
- Under New Management
- The Blackness Between
- Schlock Mercenary bundle overview
- How do I download my Schlock Mercenary PDF to my Ereader?
I love your Free Library Program! Where can I find more information about it?
- For more information about the Baen Free Library, check out its homepage over on Baen.com
- To download the free Ebooks in our Free Library program, click "Free Library" under the Categories section on the left-hand side of the page.
Contact Technical Support
- If you've browsed the FAQ and Ereader instruction pages but still need help, email us at baensupport@principledtechnologies.com. So we can easily assist you, please include the email address and name associated with your Baen Ebooks account.
- Or, use the form below to send us a message. Please be as detailed as possible when describing your question or concern.
- Please keep in mind that we can only offer assistance for visitors and customers of Baen.com, Baen Ebooks.com, or the Baen’s Bar. If you have questions about a Baen Ebook purchase you made from another Web site, please contact them directly.
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