The Grantville Gazettes - Origins

Origins

Separating 1632-verse history from the internet web fora at Baen Books web site Baen's Bar is impossible, for the forum has shaped the series, as the series has, in part, shaped the forum. Only the Honorverse web forums of best selling author David Weber have been busier than the eventual three special fora set up for 1632-verse topics since 2000, and according to Flint, by 2005 over two hundred-thousand posts had been made on the '1632 Tech' forum alone. Hence, while fan fiction, the Gazettes from the outset differed in important ways from most fan fiction:

1. Flint himself had sought out and accepted ideas and input from fans when beginning the writing of the lead novel 1632. Some of those discussions became back plot for the series, and some were submitted to him as stories.
2. Flint, caught unaware and unprepared by the demand for a sequel, decided to open up the universe and invite other established authors to help shape the milieu. With all the internet buzz, and having already sought and gotten months of input from the new 1632verse business-only forum "1632 Tech Manual", he and Baen agreed to include meritorious fan fiction in the collection envisioned. That anthology became Ring of Fire, but was delayed for business reasons—sound marketing. David Weber and Flint had threshed out a backplot and agreed to do a 1632 sequel as a novel, and it built upon and integrated the thoughts submitted for Ring of Fire. Jim Baen sat on Ring of Fire, as anthologies in today's fiction market generally don't sell well, and a series with an anthology as its second work was new ground.
3. It was professionally edited and produced by experienced persons in the publishing industry, and Flint as gate-keeper for the series canon was unhesitant in turning back poor writing for rewrite or just rejecting same.
4. If accepted and published, the story background and back plot thereafter was canon for the universe—if material was published in a Gazette, it became part of the basis of the series thereafter.

Issued initially as an electronic quasi-magazine using the publisher's e-ARC distribution system, the original magazine came out only sporadically—as Flint and Baen copy editors had time to put early issues together. By the time of the seventh issue in June 2006, three years from the first volume, having proved to be a self-funding success, the publication changed. Along the way, Jim Baen had agreed to try another experiment, and brought out volume 1 in print as a paperback. In March 2006 Baen published volume 2 in hardcover, which became a New York Times best seller.

No longer were issues serialized in three installments, the form of the promotional Baen Webscriptions value packs, but began coming out as a single ebook at a much greater regularity. By volume 10, the magazine had hit a regular publication rate of one issue every other month released the first day of odd numbered months, and migrated from being an offering within Baen's catalog of offerings (where they are still listed as ebooks) to having a subscription system administered and accessed from its own website. It is particularly notable in that is composed of short fiction which has spawned no less than three best sellers in an age when the market for short fiction (anthologies) is very poor. In addition, the Grantville Gazettes have served as the source of new ideas and relationships which energize the popular series and find their way into the novels of the 1632 series.

Beginning in early 2007, the Gazette's publishers added an on-line web based edition published quarterly (eventually bimonthly). Additionally, the publishers switched to paying full professional rates instead of the semi-pro rates that had been paid and became an SFWA qualifying market. After the first four volumes, the published book became a "Best of" annual collection.