These are the editors at Tor that I care about. Their ideas and ideals are probably in line with yours - I know for a fact some of them are. Many of them are around my age, some younger, and there are always assistant editors around, too. Some of these editors you don’t hear about or from are long-time employees or senior editors. The reason you don’t know about or hear from a lot of the others is that they either don’t have huge online presences (or any) or they are online but wisely do not perpetrate fail on a massive scale. but are not the ultimate and final gatekeepers of anything. Many of them are senior, have been at the company a long time, etc. Mainly that the editors involved in RaceFail are not all of the editors at Tor. However, refusing to buy all Tor books all the time doesn’t take a few key things into account. That anger you feel about this shit going on? I feel it, too. I understand and fully respect the reasons why people want to do it. Here’s my thing about boycotting Tor: I don’t think it’s good idea. Other than my blogging gig, I have no personal stake in Tor - no book of my own coming out, no book deal on the horizon. That all said, I also have a lot of friends who are published by Tor’s competition and I have plenty of friends who work for Tor’s competition. Fourth, a lot of my good friends are Tor authors.
Third, I’ve been friends or acquaintances with various Tor editors (current and former) for many years now, including some involved with RaceFail. Second, Patrick Nielsen Hayden was one of my Clarion instructors. First, my blogging gig for Tor.com starts this week (tomorrow, maybe, still need to polish that post).
Just another in a long line of disappointment coming from that particular corner of the world.īefore I do, I’m going to mention the following things which may have some bearing on how you feel about what I’m going to say. This latest thing got started on Tor.com by a Tor author after all. That bit of RaceFail I pointed to the other day in my open letter to Bujold has led to some good things (discussion, increased visibility, less foolishness) but has also re-animated the notion of just boycotting Tor Books and having done with it.