Macmillan And Tor Books Launch Tor. Com



Science Fiction And Fantasy Online Community Debuts At The San Diego International Comic Convention With Live Web Coverage Of Convention Events



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:



NEW YORK, NY (July 23, 2008) – Macmillan and world-leading science fiction and fantasy publisher Tor Books have launched Tor.com (http://tor.com), the first and only online destination for the global science fiction and fantasy community. Tor.com makes its official debut at the San Diego International ComicCon to be held July 24-28, 2008 where the website will offer exclusive convention coverage.



Devoted exclusively to the world of science fiction and fantasy, Tor.com will offer regular features including original content from leading authors throughout the SF/Fantasy publishing arena, along with image galleries from today’s most celebrated science fiction and fantasy artists. In addition, Tor. com presents a wide menu of blogs from a diverse line-up of noteworthy SF luminaries as well as SF/fantasy news, commentary, and community. Tor.com will also serve as a major social networking destination where registered member SF and fantasy enthusiasts can engage with one another and personalize their online experiences.



Tor.com makes its debut with new original fiction and art, coverage from the San Diego ComicCon, exclusive blogs and original short stories from Hugo Award-winning British SF writer Charles Stross (Singularity Sky, The Concrete Jungle, Accelerando) and film critic-turned Campbell Award Winner for Best New Writer John Scalzi (Old Man’s War, Agent to the Stars).



Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Senior Editor of Tor Books and Tor.com’s Editor-in-Chief, said: “We are proud and delighted to serve science fiction and fantasy aficianados everywhere, a community that has been expanding and evolving since the 1930s. Our objective with Tor.com is to bring this vibrant community a science fiction convention that never ends.”



“This is truly an exciting period for SF and fantasy, reflected by the many extraordinary creative talents in the field. We look forward to bringing the SF/fantasy community together – and bringing the dialogue to Tor.com,” said Tom Doherty, President and Publisher of Tor Books.



Said Brian Napack, President of Macmillan: "Tor and Tom Doherty have long been at the center of the SF and fantasy world. Tom and Tor have been voted Locus poll’s “Best Publisher’ for the past 20 consecutive years. It makes perfect sense for Tor.com to be the place that SF content, coverage, and community come together online. Our goal in all of this is to provide a platform for science fiction to freely spread online.”



ABOUT TOR BOOKS:

Tor Books, an imprint of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC, is a New York-based publisher of hardcover and softcover books, founded in 1980 and committed (although not limited) to SF and fantasy literature. Between an extensive hardcover and trade-softcover line, an Orb backlist program, and a stronghold in mass-market paperback, Tor annually publishes what is arguably the largest and most diverse line of science fiction and fantasy ever produced by a single English-language publisher. Books from Tor have won every major award in the science fiction and fantasy fields, and for the last twenty one years in a row has earned recogniton as Best Publisher in the Locus Poll, the largest consumer poll in science fiction.



For more information, visit www.tor-forge.com



ABOUT MACMILLAN:

Macmillan is a global publisher of fiction and nonfiction books, educational content and services, scientific information, magazines and digital media. In the US, the group includes Farrar, Straus & Giroux; Henry Holt; St. Martin's Press; Tor Books; Picador; Macmillan Audio; Bedford, Freeman & Worth; and Scientific American. Macmillan is the US subsidiary of Verlagsgruppe Georg von Holtzbrinck, GMbH, a global media company based in Stuttgart, Germany.



For more information, visit www.macmillan.com.