A quick post on publishers I’ve been meaning to do for a while now! I’ve had some health issues over the past few weeks that I’ve been dealing with, which is why my posts (which were already sporadic at best) have come to a bit of a standstill.
I have a concussion, so I’m not really supposed to be on my computer at all, but I’ve been itching to make a post. I’ve compromised with myself, and instead of working on the more brain-intensive stuff (I have quite a few reviews in the pipeline at the moment), I figured some light information gathering won’t hurt. I might come back later and talk more about my health (it’s been a lot), but for now, I wanted to do a post on publishers — a topic y’all know I can ramble on about. (If borrowing books and libraries are more your speed, check out my post on getting library access for everyone.)
We’re going to stay away from the controversial and opinionated stuff for the time being, and instead, I’m compiling a list of the current big “mainstream” publishers and their respective imprints, because it can definitely get confusing and tiresome to hunt down the answers. Note that this list is not at all exhaustive, as I’ve left the independent publishers and the houses of a certain monolithic company off. Those are for other posts. This is also going to focus on U.S. houses — I’m not getting into the weeds of U.S. vs. U.K. publishing here, sorry y’all. The energy is not there.
Yet another caveat: Although Penguin Random House is attempting to buy Simon & Schuster, that deal is still in legal limbo at the moment. For now, the two are going to be listed separately.
November 2022 Update: The Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster deal has fallen through–what a rollercoaster that has been. Although this list stands for now, there’s potential for another publisher to sweep in on S&S, so definitely stay tuned. We may see big changes yet.
The Big Five
Penguin Random House
- DK
- DK (Darling Kindersley)
- Penguin Publishing Group
- Avery (prev. Gotham Press and Hudson Street Press)
- Berkley
- Ace Books
- Jove Books (prev. Pyramid Books)
- New American Library
- Meridian
- Mentor Books
- Mentor-Omega
- Mentor Executive Library
- Mentor-Unesco Art Books
- NAL Trade
- Plume
- Signet Books
- Signet Classics
- Signet Fiction
- Signet Science
- Signet Key
- Signette
- DAW
- Dutton
- Family Tree Books
- G.P. Putnam’s Sons
- Impact Books
- Krause Publications
- North Light Books
- Penguin Books
- Penguin Classics
- Penguin Press
- Popular Woodworking
- Portfolio
- Riverhead
- Sentinel
- TarcherPerigee
- Viking
- Writer’s Digest
- Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
- Books on Tape
- Listening Library
- Living Language
- Penguin Random House Audio Publishing
- Random House Large Print
- Random House Puzzles and Games
- Random House Reference
- Penguin Young Readers Group
- Dial Books for Young Readers
- Dutton Children’s Books
- Firebird
- Frederick Warne
- G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
- Kathy Dawson Books
- Kokila
- Nancy Paulsen Books
- Penguin Workshop
- Philomel
- Puffin Books
- Razorbill
- Speak
- Viking Children’s Books
- Random House
- Ballantine Books
- Bantam
- The Crown Publishing Group
- Clarkson Potter
- Convergent Books
- Crown Trade
- Hogarth
- Broadway Books
- Crown Archetype
- Crown Forum
- Currency
- Harmony Books
- Image Catholic Books
- Lorena Jones Books
- Multnomah
- Rodale books
- Ten Speed Press
- Tim Duggan Books
- WaterBrook
- Watson-Guptill
- Del Rey
- Delacorte Press
- Dell
- Loveswept
- Lucas Books
- Modern Library
- One World
- Random House
- SJP
- Spiegel & Grau
- The Dial Press
- Three Rivers Press
- Random House Children’s Books
- Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers
- Anne Schwartz Books
- Crown Books for Young Readers
- Delacorte Press
- Doubleday
- Dragonfly Books
- Ember
- Golden Books
- NOW I’M READING!
- Random House Books for Young Readers
- Sylvan Learning
- The Princeton Review
- Wendy Lamb Books
- Yearling Books
- The Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
- Alfred A. Knopf
- Anchor Books
- Doubleday
- Everyman’s Library
- Nan A. Talese
- Pantheon Books
- Schocken Books
- Vintage Books
- Vintage Espanol
Macmillan
- Publishers
- Celadon Books
- Farrar, Straus and Giroux
- Picador
- Flatiron Books
- First Second
- Henry Holt & Co.
- Henry Holt & Co.
- Metropolitan Books
- Macmillan Audio
- Quick and Dirty Tips
- St. Martin’s Publishing Group
- St. Martin’s Press
- Minotaur Books
- Thomas Dunne Books
- Castle Point Books
- Tor/Forge
- Distributed Publishers
- Childrens
- Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group
- FSG Books for Young Readers
- Feiwel & Friends
- Holt Books for Young Readers
- Imprint
- Kingfisher
- Neon Squid
- Odd Dot
- Priddy Books
- Roaring Brook
- Starscape/Tor Teen
- Square Fish
- Swoon Reads
- Young Listeners
Simon & Schuster
- Simon & Schuster Adult Publishing
- Adams Media
- Atria
- Avid Reader Press
- Emily Bestler Books
- Enliven
- Folger Shakespeare Library
- Free Press
- Gallery
- Howard
- Jeter Publishing
- One Signal
- Scout Press
- Scribner
- Simon & Schuster
- Threshold
- Tiller Press
- Touchstone
- Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing
- Aladdin
- Atheneum
- Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
- Beach Lane Books
- Denene Millner Books
- Little Simon
- Margaret K. McElderry
- Paula Wiseman Books
- Saga Press
- Salaam Reads
- Simon Spotlight
- Simon & Schuster Audio Publishing
- Pimsleur
- Simon & Schuster Audio
Hachette
- Grand Central Publishing
- Forever / Forever Yours
- Legacy Lit
- Twelve
- Orbit Publishing
- Orbit
- Redhook
- Hachette Audio
- Wattpad
- Hachette Nashville
- Center Street
- FaithWords
- Worthy Books
- Little, Brown and Company
- Back Bay Books
- Little, Brown Spark
- Mulholland Books
- Voracious
- Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
- Christy Ottaviano Books
- JIMMY Patterson
- LB Kids
- Poppy
- Perseus
- Avalon Travel
- Moon Travel
- Rick Steves
- Basic Books
- Seal Press
- Hachette Books
- Hachette Go
- PublicAffairs
- Bold Type Books
- Economist Books
- Running Press
- Black Dog & Leventhal
HarperCollins
- General
- Amistad
- Anthony Bourdain Books
- Avon
- Broadside Books
- Caedmon
- Custom House
- Dey Street Books
- Ecco
- Harper Books
- Harper Business
- Harper Design
- Harper Luxe
- Harper Perennial
- Harper Voyager
- Harper Wave
- HarperAudio
- HarperCollins 360
- HarperCollins Español
- HarperOne
- HarperVia
- William Morrow
- Children’s
- Amistad
- Balzer + Bray
- Greenwillow Books
- HarperAlley
- HarperChildren’s Audio
- HarperCollins Children’s Books
- HarperFestival
- HarperTeen
- Heartdrum
- Katherine Tegen Books
- Quill Tree Books
- Walden Pond Press
- Christian Publishing
- Bible Gateway
- Editorial Vida
- FaithGateway
- Grupo Nelson
- Nelson Books
- Olive Tree
- Thomas Nelson
- Tommy Nelson
- W Publishing Group
- WestBow Press
- Zonderkidz
- Zondervan
- Zondervan Academic
- Harlequin
- Carina Press
- Graydon House Books
- Hanover Square Press
- Harlequin Books
- HQN Books
- Inkyard Press
- Love Inspired
- MIRA Books
- Park Row Books
Other Resources
Here are some other, more comprehensive references that might be of interest to you if you’d like to dig further.
An article depicting the past twenty years or so of publisher consolidation and mergers
The chart that originally got me interested years ago in the complicated mess that is publishing
That’s it for now! I plan to keep working on this every so often, and expand on information that might be helpful to other publishing nerds like me. I am far from claiming that this list is perfect (in fact, I would 100% bet that there are mistakes here), so please do comment or email me if you find any glaring mistakes or changes that need to be made.
All the best,
Good grief! Isn’t it enough for striving authors that we have to scour the landscape to find possible publishers who might take a look or two at our works? But here comes Grace Pursel, trying to synopsize (if possible) all the imprints of all the publishers and their children rather grossly called “The Big Five” who have gobbled up virtually every reputable publisher in modern existence. And for the name of whomever you bow and pray to, you get the very first one on your list wrong. It’s DK Dorling, my dear, not Darling. Your reputation has been sullied. Now, and secondly, if you know of an independent publisher who still published literary novels, please send me a list of same to save me the almost impossible task of trying to flush them out of the bushes. You can rescue your self by doing so.
BRM
I don’t like to approve rude comments, but I think in this case responding could be educational to others.
I’m sorry that you, like many others, are struggling to find a home for your work, but bitter comments like this will only hurt you in the end. If you’re familiar with the online book community, you might know that it’s pretty small and we talk. While I don’t really care about your comment, that is likely untrue for the agents/editors that Google your name and see this type of thing. (And they will see this, B R Midgett. As you pointed out, this site appears pretty high in Google rankings.)
As for my article — you’re absolutely right, it’s difficult to maintain a running list of which imprints belong to which publishers. There is some outdated info here, as there are near constant changes within the industry. That being said, this article is intended to illustrate that confusion. It can be difficult for readers to determine which books are published independently and which are actually owned by much larger publishers. That topic has fascinated me for a while, so I published this list in the hopes that it would inform others in the same position I once found myself in. It is certainly not a guide for writers looking for independent publishers — I do say in my preface that this list is specifically not for indie publishers. There are other articles by other lovely bloggers on that topic you could have found and read in the time it took you to write this comment.
I think we might even share some of the same views on the state of independent publishers and near-monopoly the “Big Five” (not my term) have. However, this isn’t an article about my opinion. It is simply informative because I believe publishing owes readers and writers a little more transparency.
And, since we’re being petty — it’s “some”, my darling, not “same.” You might want to check the autocorrect on your writing before you criticize others.
If you’d genuinely like my help, feel free to email me privately in a slightly kinder tone and I’d be happy to chat.