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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:
        1. Credit Card- Master Card, Visa, Discover, or American Express
        2. Paypal
        3. Certified Check/Money Order- No personal or foreign currency checks are accepted
        4. 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:
        1. • Is the card expired?
        2. • Is your total more than your gift card?
        3. • 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.
    • 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:
          1. •$5.00
          2. •$10.00
          3. •$25.00
          4. •$50.00
          5. •$100.00
          6. •$250.00
          7. •$500.00
          8. •$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?
      • We release three segments of each new novel, one month apart, beginning three months before the publication date. Check back on the 15th of every month for updated ebook files until the actual publication month. Log back in after noon EST on the first Tuesday of the publication month to receive the final updated Ebook. Monthly discount bundles are available for purchase starting three months before the publication month.
      • 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:
        1. HTML (.htm)– Read this online or download and enjoy on your computer
        2. Ebookwise/Rocket (.rb)– Read on your Rockbook Ereader
        3. Mobi/Palm/Kindle (.mobi)– Read on your Kindle or Palm PDA devices
        4. EPUB/Nook/Stanza (.epub)– Read on your Apple, Nook, or Android devices
        5. Microsoft Reader (.lit)
        6. Sony Digital Reader (.lrf)
        7. 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:
          1. 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.
          2. 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?
      • The new mass download page makes downloading your books faster and more convenient! Now you can download up to 100 books at a time.
      • What is the mass download page?
      • What books can I download via the mass download page?
      • How does the page work?
      • Can I search for specific books?
      • Are there any restrictions to this page?
      • What happens if I try to download a book that doesn’t have my selected format?
    • I need help loading my Ebook onto my Ereader!
    • Monthly Baen Bundles
    • eARCs
    • 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 GazetteEbooks, 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:
          1. The Tub of Happiness
          2. The Teraport Wars
          3. Under New Management
          4. The Blackness Between
          5. Schlock Mercenary bundle overview
      • How do I download my Schlock Mercenary PDF to my Ereader?
    • Many thoughtful readers have asked us, is there a format to buy that is best for the author (i.e. gives the author the most bang for my buck)?
      • One of the best ways to support an author's work costs nothing at all: simply give it positive word of mouth, internet publicity, and encourage other people to buy it.
      • However, speaking in general and in monetary terms, the author will receive the most return from your investment in the following order:

        eARC
        Hardcover
        Hardcover eBook
        Trade Paper eBook
        Trade Paper
        Mass Market Paperback
    • 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.

        Your Name:
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