It just might work!” ideas do - over drinks. What was the impetus? Of all the directions you could have experimented with, why dramatic podcasts?

Tell me about this conversation between the two of you that sparked the idea for Tor Labs. I recently spoke with them via email about the genesis of Tor Labs, audio dramas, and other avenues Tor Labs may explore in the future. Tor Labs is the brainchild of Tor editors Jen Gunnels and Marco Palmieri, who have big plans for the experimental imprint. This year, they launched something called Tor Labs, “a new imprint emphasizing experimental approaches to genre publishing, beginning with original dramatic podcasts.” The first podcast, Steal the Stars- about government employees guarding a crashed UFO - is a 14-episode sci-fi noir thriller that feels like listening to a feature film. And earlier in 2015, they signed sci-fi writer John Scalzi to an unprecedented 13-book deal worth more than $3 million.

Two years ago, responding to the rise of e-books, they launched a new line of novellas they believed to be better-suited for the platform than epic doorstoppers. Then came Tor.com, home to award-winning short fiction from heavyweights like Nnedi Okorafor and Jeffrey Ford, as well as a huge fan community that participates in massive “re-reads” and “re-watches.”īut you might not know this: Tor is easily one of the most innovative, risk-taking publishers in the United States. It began in the ’80s with Tor Books, which has since published everything from Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time to Ken Liu’s translations of The Three-Body Problem. If you’re even remotely geeky, you know the Tor media empire has long been a major force in science fiction, fantasy, and horror.

Who own tor publishing