[poofsoda]

Doesn’t TOR also publish works by Brandon Sanderson, Robert Jordan, Douglas Adams, Philip K. Dick, and others? I wouldn’t agree with characterizing those authors as “exclusively trashy sci-fi..” I am not sure if your comment means “of the sci fi they publish, it is all trashy” (implying they publish some non-sci fi that is not necessarily trashy) or “the only works they publish are sci fi and all of said sci fi is trashy”. Either way, I would bet most readers wouldn’t consider these authors to be trashy.

I think the original point that one can obtain enjoyable reads in DRM-free form from TOR still stands, even if not all books they publish are exemplary.

[astrange]

Wait, I was thinking of Baen.

Robert Jordan is trashy fantasy though, yes. Once you figure out what his fetishes are you can see how much of the stuff in Wheel of Time is secretly a sex thing. (Several of the magic techniques are BDSM, the Aes Sedai "pillow friends", any time anyone uses compulsion, the weird amounts of women talking about spanking each other…)

Brandon Sanderson didn't do any of that when he took over, I guess he didn't notice it.