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Baen Books has been a feature of the background to my life since I began university. The concept was simple: essentially a 'pulp' sci-fi publishing house in that their overheads were low and their product quality passable but non-stellar (by which I mean mildly weak bindings, low-quality grainy paper and so on). The difference was that their founder and editor-in-chief, Jim Baen, had an eye for quality and a knack for selecting authors from the mass that flooded his mailbox that would not only go on to great things, but bring great things back to the company, since many chose to remain with his publishing house after hitting the big-time. Lois McMaster Bujold and David Weber are two of their better known proteges.
The business model was simple: low overheads, and a decent cut of the profits for the author. For particularly successful series, and always with the author's consent, Baen would release the first few books of the series completely free online, with no DRM or locking of any kind, a practice which led many readers to buy the entire series (myself included on more than one occasion). The publishing house and Baen himself always maintained close ties with the fans, leading to their being treated more as friends and reviewers than suppliers in that any book supplied by Baen tended to be a cut above the rest.
Today, Jim Baen suffered a fatal stroke. It wasn't that much of a surprise, since he had an earlier stroke at the end of last week. There was a detailed plan at Baen for the company's continuation after his death, which is being followed. A leader, a finder, a maverick visionary has departed the sci-fi fen, and I suspect we will not see his kind for a while.
I'm writing too many damned obituaries of late.