I'm not given to "techno-lust" but there is one device that I've wanted for a long time now, an e-book reader.
Not too much to ask, right? You'd never know it.
As the years went by and I was offered one headache
producing solution after the other my frustration grew and then finally the day arrived, the day I looked at an ad for a nice little gadget and thought to myself " That one!". I was wrong of course. I wanted an e- book reader but the company that produced the reader wanted to own me.
So I went and whined to Jim Baen. "Make a reader
for me" I said and then added "Make it for me and all the others like me.".
Essentially Jim's reply was "Do it for yourselves".
He'd give us a home at Baen's Bar to organize and the reader would have to support all the formats Baen uses.
"Done!" I said and set off to become an e-book reader
supplier. If that's what it was going to take to get me the reader I wanted then that's what I would do.
It's been a trip from March '06 to now and I've got a
crew of people who feel the same way I do working with me to get the job done. That means it's time for a formal mission statement so here goes :
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This is a reader by us for our own use and for any other book lover who just wants to read books without being trapped into anyone else's business plan.
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We will not lock you into any one format, or try to
dictate your choice of download sites. We don't want anyone doing that
to us and we're not going to do it to you.
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This is a bare bones reader. That means you can carry
a small library with you and we don't have to charge you the earth for
it. If you want something that does text messaging you've bought the
wrong device.
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No DRM and no hidden "gotchas" what you see is what
you get.
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We intend this reader to support as many formats as
possible.
Heavily encrypted ones may be beyond it's scope but any others should work just fine; that means you can keep your current library and your favorite software reader format.
So there it is, it's not another e-book reader, it's an honest one.
It's the sort of thing Jim would like.
Pamela Gadsden
CEO
