Science fiction fans have been awaiting the launch of Tor.com for months, their expectations fueled by a pre-release buzz campaign that included free downloads of books published by Macmillan‘s SF/fantasy house and desktop wallpapers. Now that the site is up and running, it’s living up to the hype—the central blog is more like a newsletter for science fiction in pop culture than a marketing platform for Tor products, and there’s also original stories from authors like John Scalzi and Charlie Stross. If, as editor Patrick Nielsen Hayden writes in an early post, “effective blogging is a combination of good personal writing and smart party hosting… what matters is that it encourages further conversation,” the site appears to be off to a strong start, with an active discussion board community in addition to the blog posts.
But Random House, which owns both Bantam Spectra, Del Rey, and Prima Games, also wants to market to its SF readership online, so they’ve launched Suvudu, a site described as “[like] the San Diego Comic Con… all year round!” So far, it’s just blog posts, but promised later developments include “a library of free science fiction and fantasy books, advanced reads of forthcoming projects, exclusive looks inside the creative process of the publishing world, and… a forum for like-minded fans to converse with one another.” The mood here is a bit more self-promotional, although there’s still room for posts about the new Hayao Miyazaki film and an appreciation of the soundtrack to the new Incredible Hulk movie. The main disadvantage here, apart from the difficult and unmemorable name, is that Tor has rolled out more features first—most importantly the discussion area which helps turn readers into engaged community members. It’s the difference between visiting a site that provides an opportunity for social networking and visiting a site that is a clearinghouse of information (includings lists of great authors, popular series, and the ubiquitous “sites we like”) with only the most basic of interactive capabilities.
That doesn’t have to be a disadvantage, though: A science-fiction blog like io9, or a pop culture blog like Pop Candy, can build up a loyal audience on little more than offering the ability to comment on posts—if, as Nielsen Hayden says, the content is strong enough to spark a conversation, and the creators willing to let that conversation flourish.