Peter Thiel's Passage Press Officially Confirms Ark Press As A Sci-Fi And Fantasy Imprint

At the end of January, Fandom Pulse reported that Peter Thiel was upending science fiction publishing after a heavily researched expose showing how his investment group attempted to buy Baen Books, and when Baen refused, he poached their talent through Passage Press to create Ark Press in science fiction. Now, Passage Press has confirmed many of these details in public.

Like most of the mainstream publishing industry, Baen Books has been struggling in recent years due to an inability to find new talent to replace many of its aging staples. The company still garners most of its revenue from Larry Correia, John Ringo, and David Weber, while other authors at the company wait to receive royalty checks for when Baen can use releases from their big three to support the rest of their operations.

Part of the reason for their issues is the way Amazon has upended publishing, with most men’s fiction now going directly to Amazon to connect with military science fiction and LitRPG readers who would have been Baen’s core readership in the past. The authors on Amazon don’t have to have an agent and publisher as middlemen don’t have to split their proceeds and keep more of the profits themselves.

It leaves publishers like Baen Books stuck because any author who could benefit them who has a following has no reason to go to Baen Books outside of wanting the vanity of seeing their books in a bookstore, and any author who Baen Books could pick up doesn’t have enough of a following to be profitable for them.