ROC or TOR

What do you mean by "better quality"?

I don;t generally look at who published a book (when I'm in a bookshop anyway) before I've read it. So ...er...either?

It's also going to depend on what sort of SFF you like, etc.

It's not so much a difference in quality in terms of contents, than it is the type of book they publish.

Roc and Tor both publish excellent books, but they do publish slightly different kinds of SF/F books. This is also true for Daw, and other SF/F publishers. Baen in particular seems to be most interested in specific kinds of SF/F books.

In terms of production quality, that is the manufacture of the books, that's harder to say. Tor generally uses better quality paper. Other aspects vary from book to book.

@Mr Flibble what type of SFF I like? clarify? like warm butter

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Errr kinda. What Medi says here:

Medievalist said:

It's not so much a difference in quality in terms of contents, than it is the type of book they publish.

Roc and Tor both publish excellent books, but they do publish slightly different kinds of SF/F books. This is also true for Daw, and other SF/F publishers. Baen in particular seems to be most interested in specific kinds of SF/F books.

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I often find AFTER I bought my books that the ones that appealed came from a couple of imprints with regularity - much more than the others. Because they publish slightly different strains of SFF, not just at the sub genre level, but in style and tone etc too, sometimes.

I don't know any major publishers that publish SyFy.

Just to add: this a question better solved by your own research. Each publisher has different focal areas, and not just one. Find publishers who match or complement your style. Each has different size limitations, too. I know that if I cannot trim down my 130K fantasy mms, DAW is the one my agent will send it too, first.

acockey said:

Who publishes better quality fantasy/ Sci-fi or (Syfy) Tor or ROC?

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How long is a piece of string?

This is bad question because it is unanswerable. Everyone's criteria of quality will be different.

What are you trying to ask?

I can't say one is better than the other, but I've always liked Tor for some reason and regarded it highly, maybe it just sticks out to me more than the others. *shrug*

What is the relevance of the question?

I really couldn't say. The publisher of a book is something I don't usually notice when I'm browsing in a store, and even less when I'm buying from Amazon or B&N.com.

My book buying choices tend to be driven by author familiarity, recommendations from people with similar taste, whether the plot synopsis on the back or inside flap grab me, and whether or not the first page or so reads well. Also (since I've been on these writing sites), I may buy a book from one of the authors I've "met" if they sounds like something that might interest me.

A perusal of my shelves (which are a mix of recent purchases and books I've had for decades) shows that I have a lot of SFF books from DAW and TOR, some from Orbit and Bantam/Spectra. There are ones from a smattering of other publishers as well, and since I've been buying more books online lately (and e-books too), smaller publishers are better represented among my recent purchases than among the books that have been in my library for years. I didn't see anything by Roc, but I didn't look at every book in my collection.

Not sure if the weighting towards Daw and Tor are more about the sheer number of books by prominent SFF authors they've put out over the years versus their tendency to publish books that are "more to my taste" than other SFF imprints.

I know many authors have different US and UK publishers, but I can almost bank on liking anythiing put out by Gollancz.

acockey said:

it seems like Tor publishes more Urban Fantasy... am I right on that assessment?

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No, quite the opposite. Tor got into the UF game much later than Roc or Ace or Del Rey.

Considering I'd like to be published someday, and I'd be thrilled to be published by either, I'm not going to rank one over the other.

Although, as it happens, I don't think I could. I buy books based on whether I think I'd like to read that story, not based on who published it.

And there is no such thing as SyFy.....

Yeah, please don't use that term. It was invented by a network executive who hates and doesn't understand science fiction and fantasy.

And, I'm informed, it's the Polish slang for a rather nasty STD that can be cured by penicillin...

I think it's one of the enduring quirks of publishing that people don't tend to choose their books by publisher. Although this may be less true in, say, category Romance, where a reader might well find what they're looking for in particular Harlequin lines, frex.

acockey said:

@Roger J Carlson Clarification: are you more likely to pick up a book by Roc than Tor? or Vice Versa? In an attempt not to turn this into flame wars, does one publisher seem to put out better quality books than the other? or better books more often? more to the point is there a reason one publisher is better than the other?

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I don't generally pick books by publisher. I'm more likely to pick a book by author.

That said, I've recently been buying from Baen more than any other because of their free e-book library. It allowed me to get the first book in a series without risk. Unfortunately, they appear to be moving away from that model. There are fewer free books in the library. That's too bad because I have since bought more books from them (that is, directly from their website) than I've downloaded for free. And I've discovered new authors I might never have tried.

In terms of marketing, I'm a fan of Tor's newsletter. They have a free short story -- usually by an author whose book is about to come out. Then they have re-reads of older sci-fi/fantasy books and re-watches of older sci-fi/fantasy shows where there are chats like a book club -- only on the internet level. If Roc has something similiar, I don't know abou it. But that Tor newsletter is something I look forward to and spend a lot of time clicking around on their website.

Taking this to mean "how well the printing job was done" (since as noted they publish different "strains" of SF):

Tor does a better job. The last several I've picked up from ROC have been littered with typos and other artifacts of just dumping a Word document into the typesetting process without troubling to proofread it. (And lower paper/binding quality as well)

Tho I'm starting to see more of that sort of thing from Tor as well.