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Tor Books

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Not to be confused withTor (anonymity network).
Tor Books
The 2016 logo
Parent companyTor Publishing Group
(Macmillan)
FoundedApril 2, 1980;44 years ago(1980-04-02)
Founder
Country of originUnited States
Headquarters locationEquitable Building,New York City
DistributionMacmillan(US)
Melia Publishing Services (UK)[1]
Key peopleTom Doherty
Publication typesBooks,E-books
ImprintsForge, Starscape, Tor Teen, Orb, Tordotcom, Nightfire, Bramble
Official websiteus.macmillan/torpublishinggroup/

Tor Booksis the primaryimprintof Tor Publishing Group (previouslyTom DohertyAssociates),[2]a publishing company based in New York City. It primarily publishes science fiction and fantasy titles.

History[edit]

Tor was founded byTom Doherty,Harriet McDougal,andJim Baenin 1980. (Baen foundedhis own imprintthree years later.) They were soon joined by Barbara Doherty and Katherine Pendill, who then composed the original startup team.

Toris a word meaning a rocky pinnacle,[3]as depicted in Tor's logo.[4]Tor Books was sold toSt. Martin's Pressin 1987. Along with St. Martin's Press;Henry Holt;andFarrar, Straus and Giroux,it became part of theHoltzbrinckgroup, now part ofMacmillanin the US.[5]

In June 2019, Tor and other Macmillan imprints moved from theFlatiron Building,to larger offices in theEquitable Building.[6][7]

Imprints[edit]

Tor is the primary imprint of Tor Publishing Group.[8]The Forge imprint publishes an array of fictional titles, including historical novels and thrillers. Tor Books has two imprints for young readers: Starscape (for readers 10 years of age and up) and Tor Teen (for readers 13 years of age and up).[9]The Tordotcom imprint focuses on short works such asnovellas,shorter novels and serializations.[10]

A United Kingdom sister imprint, Tor UK, specializes in science fiction, fantasy, and horror, and publishes young-adult crossover fiction based on computer-game franchises.[8]Tor UK briefly maintained an open submission policy, which ended in January 2013.[11]

Orb Bookspublishes science-fiction classics such asA. E. van Vogt'sSlan.

Tor Teen publishes young-adult novels such asCory Doctorow'sLittle Brotherand repackages novels such asOrson Scott Card'sEnder's Gamefor younger readers.

Tor Labs producespodcasts.[12]

A German sister imprint, Fischer Tor, was founded in August 2016 as an imprint ofS. Fischer Verlag(which also belongs to Holtzbrinck Publishing Group).[13]It publishes international titles translated into German, as well as original German works. Fischer Tor also publishes the German online magazineTor Online,which is based on the same concept as the EnglishToronline magazine, but has its own independent content.[13]

Authors[edit]

The logo used until 2015

Authors published by Tor and Forge include:Kevin J. Anderson,Kage Baker,Steven Brust,Orson Scott Card,Jonathan Carroll,Myke Cole,Charles de Lint,Philip K. Dick,Cory Doctorow,Steven Erikson,Sarah Gailey,Terry Goodkind,Steven Gould,Eileen Gunn,James Gunn,Brian Herbert,Glen Hirshberg,Robert Jordan,Sherrilyn Kenyon,[14]George R. R. Martin,Richard Matheson,Tamsyn Muir,Lucy A. Snyder,L. E. Modesitt, Jr.,Andre Norton,Harold Robbins,Brandon Sanderson,John Scalzi,Mary Robinette Kowal,V. E. Schwab,Skyler White,andGene Wolfe.[9]

Tor UK has published authors such asDouglas Adams,Rjurik Davidson,Amanda Hocking,China Miéville,Adam Nevill,andAdrian Tchaikovsky.[8]

E-books[edit]

Tor publishes a range of its works ase-booksand, in 2012, Doherty announced that his imprints would sell onlyDRM-freee-books by July of that year.[15]One year later, Tor stated that the removal of DRM had not harmed its e-book business, so they would continue selling them DRM-free.[16]

In July 2018, Macmillan Publishers and Tor prompted a boycott spread across social media websites and library bulletin boards after they announced that Tor's e-books would no longer be made available for libraries to purchase and lend to borrowers, via digital distribution services such asOverDrive,until four months after their initial publication date.[17]The company cited the "direct and adverse impact" of electronic lending on retail eBook sales but suggested that the change was part of a "test program" and could be reevaluated.[17][18]

Accolades[edit]

Tor won theLocusmagazinepoll for best science fiction publisher in 33 consecutive years from 1988 to 2022 inclusive.[19]

In March 2014,Worlds Without Endlisted Tor as the second-most awarded and nominated publisher of science fiction, fantasy and horror books, afterGollancz.[20]At that time, Tor had received 316 nominations and 54 wins for 723 published novels, written by 197 authors.[20]In the following year, Tor surpassed Gollancz to become the top publisher on the list.[21]

By March 2018, Tor's record had increased to 579 nominations and 111 wins, across 16 tracked awards given in the covered genres, with a total of 2,353 published novels written by 576 authors.[22]

References[edit]

  1. ^"List of client publishers".Melia Publishing Services.Archivedfrom the original on December 27, 2017.
  2. ^"Tom Doherty Associates Is Now Tor Publishing Group".Tor.August 8, 2022.RetrievedAugust 8,2022.
  3. ^"tor".Dictionary Unabridged(Online). n.d.RetrievedMarch 21,2018.
  4. ^Mangu-Ward, Katherine (December 2008)."Tor's Worlds Without Death or Taxes".Reason.Archivedfrom the original on August 11, 2017.
  5. ^"Tor Books".The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction.December 20, 2017.Archivedfrom the original on March 21, 2018.
  6. ^"Macmillan's Move".Locus.June 2, 2019.RetrievedJune 23,2019.
  7. ^"Minotaur Books on Instagram: 'Getting all settled into our brand new Minotaur HQ ✨.. #mystery #thriller #suspense #bookstagram #minotaurbooks'".Instagram. Archived fromthe originalon December 26, 2021.RetrievedJune 23,2019.
  8. ^abc"About Tor UK – A Blog from the Tor UK Team and Authors".Tor UK.Pan Macmillan. 2014. Archived fromthe originalon July 24, 2017.
  9. ^ab"Tor/Forge".MacMillan Publishers.Macmillan. 2014.Archivedfrom the original on November 28, 2017.
  10. ^"Announcing Tor the Imprint".Tor.Macmillan. May 28, 2014.Archivedfrom the original on January 24, 2018.
  11. ^"Submitting a Novel to Tor UK".Blogs – Science Fiction and Fantasy.Pan Macmillan. January 29, 2013.Archivedfrom the original on March 21, 2018.
  12. ^Liptak, Andrew (May 2, 2017)."Tor Books announces a new fiction imprint dedicated to experimental storytelling".The Verge.Archivedfrom the original on September 24, 2017.
  13. ^ab"Fischer Tor".S. Fischer Verlage(in German). 2016.Archivedfrom the original on August 19, 2017.
  14. ^"Search Results for" sherrilyn kenyon "".
  15. ^"Tor/Forge E-book Titles to Go DRM-Free".Tor.Macmillan. April 24, 2012.Archivedfrom the original on March 9, 2018.
  16. ^Geuss, Megan (May 4, 2013)."Tor Books says cutting DRM out of its e-books hasn't hurt the business – A look at the sci-fi publisher a year after it announced it would do away with DRM".Ars Technica.Archivedfrom the original on March 21, 2018.Early this week, Tor Books, a subsidiary of Tom Doherty Associates and the world's leading publisher of science fiction, gave an update on how its decision to do away with Digital Rights Management (DRM) schemes has impacted the company. Long story short: it hasn't, really.
  17. ^abHoffelder, Nate (July 19, 2018)."Updated: Tor Books is Now Windowing Library eBooks".The Digital Reader.Archivedfrom the original on August 27, 2018.
  18. ^"Statement Release Regarding TOR Digital Books".Upper Arlington Public Library.July 17, 2018.Archivedfrom the original on August 25, 2018.
  19. ^"Locus Award Winners by Category – Publishers".The Science Fiction Awards Database.Archivedfrom the original on September 4, 2017.
  20. ^ab"Top Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror (SF/F/H) Publishers".Worlds Without End.2014. Archived from the original on March 31, 2014.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  21. ^"Top Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror (SF/F/H) Publishers".Worlds Without End.2015. Archived from the original on March 22, 2015.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  22. ^"Top Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror (SF/F/H) Publishers".Worlds Without End.2018. Archived from the original on March 21, 2018.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)

External links[edit]

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