Hi, Ashley!
Do you know of a really good list of publishers and their imprints? I’m a little OCD (lol, self-diagnosed) and like to sub-categorize my publishers—but sometimes it gets really confusing. Going to the publishers websites usually helps but not always—for example: Little, Brown and Company looks like it is it’s own entity, but Little, Brown Books for Young Readers is an imprint of Hachette Book Group—when I dig further, I find that Little, Brown and Company IS under the Hachette Group umbrella. As I said, it’s confusing at times!
Is there an easier way to do this? Or a site that lays them all out there in flowchart? LOL!
Thanks!
Bree
Hi Bree!
Unfortunately I don’t know of a good website or flow chart, but I can at least tell you how I deal with this and maybe it will help you!
I usually have a three-step process, which I tie into how I format book reviews. My book reviews always contain a link to Goodreads and Amazon, so that’s what I do first.
Step #1: Check Goodreads
As you probably know, Goodreads won’t tell you who the “parent” publisher is, but that’s where I get the original imprint name. It’s just my starting point. While I’m at Goodreads, I paste the page URL into my book reviews.
Step #2: Check Amazon
Next I hop over to Amazon to grab the purchase URL for my book review. While I’m there, I check to see who Amazon has listed for the publisher. I’ve found that sometimes Amazon lists the “parent” publisher instead of the imprint, so it’s always worth a look.
Step #3: Google
Then I type the imprint into Google and see what I can find. In some cases, it’s immediately clear. For example, check out this Google result for tor / forge:
From the title and page URL (us.macmillan.com/TorForge), it’s immediately clear that Tor/Forge is an imprint of Macmillan.
However, if it’s not immediately clear, I just poke around their website. It’s good to check out the “About” (or similar) page and/or the copyright information. For example, in the case of Little, Brown and Company there are two places that give away that it’s an imprint of Hachette Book Group:
1) Their copyright. If you scroll down to the bottom of the page, the copyright information is: © 2013 Hachette book Group, Inc.
2) Their History page. The first paragraph says:
Little, Brown and Company is one of the country’s oldest and most distinguished publishing houses. Led by publisher Reagan Arthur, Little, Brown brings out fiction and nonfiction by many of America’s finest writers in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audio formats. Michael Pietsch is the Chairman and CEO of the Hachette Book Group, of which Little, Brown is a division. Terry Adams, Digital and Paperback Publisher, oversees Little, Brown’s paperback lines, including Back Bay books and Little, Brown trade and mass market paperbacks, as well as Little, Brown’s electronic publishing program. Geoff Shandler is Little, Brown’s Editorial Director and Judy Clain its Editor in Chief.
Little, Brown and Company
I’m not really OCD about the publishers and stuff. I mean, it’s so confusing so I just end up putting the publisher I got the book from or the one on GR in my review, lol.
Thanks for sharing, Ashley! <33
Very similar to what I do.
Same way you do, sort of. I know most of them by now lol. 😛
I do it pretty much the same as you do. I check Goodreads and then Google it. Sometimes I look through the different editions and in different countries, the parent company might be used instead. I’ve never thought to check Amazon so thank you for the tip!
Laura @ Music Plus Books
Ohh, I am so OCD about this. The best place for me has been Wikipedia. If you search for a publisher in Google, their Wikipedia page is one if the first to pop up. In the little box in the right, it will list their parent company if it’s an imprint. Otherwise, Wikipedia will list them as an independent publisher.
The publisher that stumped me for the longest time is Walker Books. I uses to have them right under Bloomsbury, but that’s not right! Walker Books is an independent publisher (sister company is Candlewick) and Bloomsbury just happened to aqcuire a publisher with a similar name. Lol.
Also, what’s really confusing is that Hyperion Books was sold to Hachette this year (their adult imprints). But their YA and children’s books are still owned by Disney. So even though they share the Hyperion name, they are owned by two different publishers. Oy!
I hardly put any research in this, to be honest.. Most of the times I just copy paste the publisher name from Goodreads in my review. I think it’s most important if you want to request certain books 🙂
Thank you, Ashley! I do usually look on Goodreads and Google it, I never thought to check out Amazon. Also, I’m really bad at wanting to get into a book, I usually skip the copyrights, etc…maybe I need to start paying more attention to them! LOL!
Thanks for the tips!!
Hahaha. I am too lazy about this. I just go to Goodreads and copy what’s written on the publisher there.
Am I alone in not really caring how the publisher is? I don’t put it in my review. The only time I really care is if I want to try to look a book up on Netgalley, and even then I usually just search by title.
No, I don’t care either. I rarely even notice the publisher.
I just get the name that’s on Goodreads. I couldn’t really care about imprints or the parent publisher, just the name of the publisher that would appear on the book. That’s pretty much it for me. *shrug*
I snagged a list of publishers and imprints from a friend and have been slowly adding to it when I come across an imprint she didn’t have. It’s taken a lot of googling and talking to pub reps for her and I to build up our giant list, but it’s so helpful! I highly advise making a text document of them so that you can easily search that 😀
I don’t know if it’s just me I notice what publisher/imprint published the book that I’m reading so after a while, I tend to figure out which imprints are part of which publisher. I only use the publisher info when I tag/categorize the post, though.
I don’t usually dig too much.. I usually use what’s listed on Goodreads. >.<
I find Edelweiss really good for this. When I was first approved for Harper titles, I didn’t realise that Balzar & Bray and Greenwillow were an imprint! If you select a publisher and update the page, then drop down the imprints menu, it’ll give you a list of all the imprints they have on there. It may not be 100% foolproof because some imprints might not be on Edelweiss, but as far as YA divisions go, it’s pretty darn good!