Tor Books is the primary imprint of Tor Publishing Group (previously Tom Doherty Associates), a publishing company based in New York City. It primarily publishes science fiction and fantasy titles, and is the largest publisher of Chinese science fiction novels in North America.

History

Tor was founded by Tom Doherty,

Harriet McDougal Harriet Popham McDougal Rigney (born August 4, 1939) is an editor who worked on several best-selling fantasy books, including the ''Wheel of Time'' series written by her husband, Robert Jordan. Jordan often claimed that all major female characters ...

, and Jim Baen in 1980 (Baen would found his own imprint three years later). They were soon joined by Barbara Doherty and Katherine Pendill, who then composed the original startup team. '' Tor'' is a word meaning a rocky pinnacle, as depicted in Tor's logo. Tor Books was sold to St. Martin's Press in 1987. Along with St. Martin's Press; Henry Holt; and

Farrar, Straus and Giroux Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG) is an American book publishing company, founded in 1946 by Roger Williams Straus Jr. and John C. Farrar. FSG is known for publishing literary books, and its authors have won numerous awards, including Pulitzer ...

, it became part of the

Holtzbrinck Holtzbrinck Publishing Group () is a Privately held company, privately held German company based in Stuttgart which Holding company, owns publishing companies worldwide. Through Macmillan Publishers, it is one of the Publishing#Book publishing, ...

group, now part of Macmillan in the US. In June 2019, Tor and other Macmillan imprints moved from the Flatiron Building, to larger offices in the Equitable Building.

Imprints

Tor is the primary imprint of Tor Publishing Group. There is also the Forge imprint that publishes an array of fictional titles, including historical novels and thrillers. Tor Books also publishes 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). Tor Books also has the Tordotcom imprint that focuses on short works such as

novellas A novella is a narrative prose fiction whose length is shorter than most novels, but longer than most short stories. The English word ''novella'' derives from the Italian ''novella'' meaning a short story related to true (or apparently so) facts ...

, shorter novels and serializations. A United Kingdom sister imprint, Tor UK, also exists and specializes in science fiction, fantasy, and horror, while also publishing young-adult crossover fiction based on computer-game franchises. Tor UK briefly maintained an open submission policy, which ended in January 2013. Orb Books publishes science-fiction classics such as A.E. Van Vogt's ''

Slan ''Slan'' is a science fiction novel by American-Canadian writer A. E. van Vogt, as well as the name of the fictional race of superbeings featured in the novel. The novel was originally serialized in the magazine ''Astounding Science Fiction'' ...

''. Tor Teen publishes young-adult novels such as

Cory Doctorow Cory Efram Doctorow (; born July 17, 1971) is a Canadian-British blogger, journalist, and science fiction author who served as co-editor of the blog '' Boing Boing''. He is an activist in favour of liberalising copyright laws and a proponent of ...

's '' Little Brother'' and repackages novels such as

Orson Scott Card Orson Scott Card (born August 24, 1951) is an American writer known best for his science fiction works. He is the first and (as of 2022) only person to win both a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in consecutive years, winning both awards for both ...

's '' Ender's Game'' for younger readers. Tor Labs produces

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...

s. A German sister imprint, Fischer Tor, was founded in August 2016 as an imprint of S. Fischer Verlag (which also belongs to Holtzbrinck Publishing Group). It publishes international titles translated into German, as well as original German works. Fischer Tor also publishes the German online magazine ''Tor Online'', which is based on the same concept as the English ''

Tor.com ''Tor.com'' is an online science fiction and fantasy magazine published by Tor Books, a division of Macmillan Publishers. The magazine publishes articles, reviews, original short fiction, re-reads and commentary on speculative fiction. From 20 ...

'' online magazine, but has its own independent content.

Authors

Authors published by Tor and Forge include: Kevin J. Anderson, Kage Baker, Steven Brust,

, Jonathan Carroll, Myke Cole,

Charles de Lint Charles de Lint (born December 22, 1951) is a Canadian writer of Dutch, Spanish, and Japanese ancestry. He is married to, and plays music with, MaryAnn Harris. Primarily a writer of fantasy fiction, he has composed works of urban fantasy, cont ...

, Philip K. Dick,

, Steven Erikson, Sarah Gailey,

Terry Goodkind Terry Lee Goodkind (January 11, 1948September 17, 2020) was an American writer. He was known for the epic fantasy series ''The Sword of Truth'' as well as the contemporary suspense novel ''The Law of Nines'' (2009), which has ties to his fantasy ...

, Steven Gould, Eileen Gunn,

James Gunn James Francis Gunn Jr. (born August 5, 1966) is an American filmmaker and executive. He began his career as a screenwriter in the mid-1990s, starting at Troma Entertainment with ''Tromeo and Juliet'' (1997). He then began working as a directo ...

Brian Herbert Brian Patrick Herbert (born June 29, 1947) is an American author who lives in Washington state. He is the elder son of science fiction author Frank Herbert (who died in 1986). Brian Herbert's novels include ''Sidney's Comet'', ''Prisoners of Ar ...

, Glen Hirshberg,

Robert Jordan James Oliver Rigney Jr. (October 17, 1948 – September 16, 2007), better known by his pen name Robert Jordan," Robert Jordan" was the name of the protagonist in the 1940 Hemingway novel ''For Whom the Bell Tolls'', though this is not how the n ...

Sherrilyn Kenyon Sherrilyn Woodward (formerly Sherrilyn Kenyon; born December 11, 1965) is a bestselling US writer. Under her former married name, she wrote both urban fantasy and paranormal romance. She is best known for her Dark Hunter series. Under the pseud ...

Richard Matheson Richard Burton Matheson (February 20, 1926 – June 23, 2013) was an American author and screenwriter, primarily in the fantasy, horror, and science fiction genres. He is best known as the author of '' I Am Legend'', a 1954 science fictio ...

, L. E. Modesitt, Jr.,

Andre Norton Andre Alice Norton (born Alice Mary Norton, February 17, 1912 – March 17, 2005) was an American writer of science fiction and fantasy, who also wrote works of historical and contemporary fiction. She wrote primarily under the pen name ...

, Harold Robbins, Brandon Sanderson, John Scalzi, Mary Robinette Kowal,

V. E. Schwab Victoria Elizabeth (V. E.) Schwab (born July 7, 1987) is an American writer. She is known for the 2013 novel '' Vicious'', the '' Shades of Magic'' series, and '' The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue'', which was nominated for the 2020 Locus Award ...

, Skyler White, and

Gene Wolfe Gene Rodman Wolfe (May 7, 1931 – April 14, 2019) was an American science fiction and fantasy writer. He was noted for his dense, allusive prose as well as the strong influence of his Catholic faith. He was a prolific short story writer and nove ...

. Tor UK has published authors such as

Douglas Adams Douglas Noel Adams (11 March 1952 – 11 May 2001) was an English author and screenwriter, best known for ''The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy''. Originally a 1978 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (radio series), BBC radio comedy, ''The H ...

, Rjurik Davidson, Amanda Hocking,

China Miéville China Tom Miéville ( ; born 6 September 1972) is a British speculative fiction writer and literary critic. He often describes his work as '' weird fiction'' and is allied to the loosely associated movement of writers called '' New Weird''. M ...

Adam Nevill Adam Nevill (also known as Adam LG Nevill) is an English writer of supernatural horror, known for his book ''The Ritual''. Prior to becoming a full-time author, Nevill worked as an editor. After publishing several novels through Pan Macmillan ...

, and Adrian Tchaikovsky.

E-books

Tor publishes a range of its works as

e-book An ebook (short for electronic book), also known as an e-book or eBook, is a book publication made available in digital form, consisting of text, images, or both, readable on the flat-panel display of computers or other electronic devices. Alt ...

s and, in 2012, Doherty announced that his imprints would sell only

DRM-free Digital rights management (DRM) is the management of legal access to digital content. Various tools or technological protection measures (TPM) such as access control technologies can restrict the use of proprietary hardware and copyrighted works. ...

e-books by July of that year. 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. 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 as OverDrive, until four months after their initial publication date. 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.

Accolades

Tor won the '' Locus Magazine'' poll for best science fiction publisher in 33 consecutive years from 1988 to 2022 inclusive. In March 2014, ''Worlds Without End'' listed Tor as the second-most awarded and nominated publisher of science fiction, fantasy and horror books, after Gollancz. At that time, Tor had received 316 nominations and 54 wins for 723 published novels, written by 197 authors. In the following year, Tor surpassed Gollancz to become the top publisher on the list. 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.

References

External links

Official website
(German)
Official website
(UK)
Official website
(US)

at ''

Reason Reason is the capacity of consciously applying logic by drawing conclusions from new or existing information, with the aim of seeking the truth. It is closely associated with such characteristically human activities as philosophy, science, ...

'', December 2008
''Tor Online'' community site
(German)
''Tor.com'' community site
{{authority control American speculative fiction publishers Book publishing companies based in New York (state) Science fiction publishers Fantasy book publishers Weird fiction publishers Publishing companies based in New York City Publishing companies established in 1980 St. Martin's Press Holtzbrinck Publishing Group