How Publishing Works: Publishing Houses, Subsidiaries & Imprints

[@WildeBookGarden]

This is such a great video, Bethany! I've picked up some of this from being on BookTube but not all of it, so convenient to have it all in one place! Just looked at some of my favorites and apparently I'm a big fan of...not being consistent 😂 no obvious front-runners in terms of imprints yet! I'd love a follow-up video on the whole small publishers/independent publishers/indie authors/etc. thing! I get some of it (like I know what makes an author self-published, for example), but I'd love an overview since I often get tripped up by what makes a small press vs. indie author or press!

[@BeautifullyBookishBethany]

Thanks Cara! I'm glad it's been helpful for people. And yeah, there's some gray area on small press vs. indie but that might be interesting to talk about.

[@anne-marie339]

This was a really great overview of publishing! I've definitely been taking notice of some imprints/presses I've been reading and loving over the last few years - including House of Anansi, Orbit, Tor/dotcom, Little Brown, Viking, St. Martin's, Doubleday Canada, among others.

[@tracey7241]

I've definitely noticed that I've been reading more books from Tor lateky (all of their imprints) and really enjoying them. I need to go through their backlist and look for other titles to pick up.

[@BeautifullyBookishBethany]

Wonderful! I'm a fan of them too.

[@saxybrit]

Really interesting video, thank you! I’ve been trying to get my head around this better in the last year, as it definitely gets complicated! I noticed last year how much orbit I have on my shelves - I even put them all together now. In general I seem to really enjoy their books. I also love that they put numbers on the spine for series! Such a little but incredibly helpful thing. Another favourite is Gollancz. I’m going to add publisher to my tracking spreadsheet- such a good idea!

[@BeautifullyBookishBethany]

Glad it was helpful! I like Orbit as well.

[@Lilli626]

The last year I found I read more "indie"/"self published" books. But this video really clarified some things I was confused about and will definitely take note on which publishing house I read more from this year!

[@Lilli626]

& would definitely love a series on this!!

[@BeautifullyBookishBethany]

I'm glad this helped!

[@thefairylibrarian3282]

This video is very helpful. I was always very confused. My favorite publishers are a bit all over the place because i read a lot of books that are originally written in different languages so they they often have more local publishers/imprints

[@thebooktaurus]

I track Publisher on my reading spreadsheet, which actually should be titled Imprint. I never actually thought of tracking both. Interesting. Hands down I can say that Tor and Orbit are two of my most read imprints. Lol, I don't even have to look that up. Great video, very interesting.

[@BeautifullyBookishBethany]

I finally started tracking imprint as its own thing this year! Tor and Orbit are great.

[@lauracorsi3309]

Last year I read a lot of Riverhead Books--not so much this year. So far. Interesting idea to trace everything back to the big players.

[@BeautifullyBookishBethany]

Interesting! I've liked some things from them.

[@Amanda-nq6mw]

Two of my big imprints is Harper Teen and Little Brown

[@aneweliseonlife]

I have been going out of my way to read and support small presses. I think my current favorite is Small Beer press but always on the look out for more❤️

[@BeautifullyBookishBethany]

Love that! There are some great books from small presses.

[@amyhenderson4895]

This was very helpful! Thanks!

[@BeautifullyBookishBethany]

Glad it was helpful!

[@cynthialovesbooks]

The majority of the books on my shelf at the moment are all by indie, self-published authors.

[@BeautifullyBookishBethany]

Love it!

[@arp711]

This was definitely helpful. Couple questions-if a company is a subsidiary of a larger publishing house (not wholly owned, but like that 45% thing such as with Sourcebooks), could it still be considered an "indie" or is that only for presses which are not owned even in part by a larger house? And if a small press is a subsidiary of a larger house, is that information always included on the copyright page, or are they allowed to leave it out? I'm imagining a situation in which the people publishing a book want it to seem like an indie even if it's not really that, but I wonder if they're perhaps legally required to include that info.

[@BeautifullyBookishBethany]

Good question! There is a difference between being a subsidiary and just be distributed by a larger company. If they actually own them, I would say that's no longer indie. However there are a number of independent small presses that make distribution deals with a larger company.

[@Otterwriter245]

I have a question: if I self publish a novel, but I take down the book and do some major developmental edits, can I still query the book? How do I convince them that my manuscript is an almost new book from the original self published novel? Will agents turn away that it has already been self published?

[@BeautifullyBookishBethany]

Great question! In general no, you cannot query a previously published book. The rare exceptions to this are when an indie title gets super popular and a trad publisher decides they want to aquire it and perhaps do some edits. Hope that helps! Alexa Donne is a great resource for info on publishing.

[@Otterwriter245]

@@BeautifullyBookishBethany what if I use this as an explanation? I believe that honesty is the best policy, so in the interest of transparency, I once self-published an extremely loose version of this story. However, it’s since been taken down and completely redrafted for a year to the point where the work is unrecognizable. In fact, with the different characters, new antagonists, and new scenes, my manuscript is a different book altogether.

[@solrm122]

So, in your Mac Kids example, I get that Macmillan is the publisher, and Mac Kids is the imprint, ... then you got... sub imprints?? extra imprints?? (swoonreads, fsg, Fiewel & friends) and then.. what is "Fierce reads"? another sub imprint? an editing house? I'm still confused lolol.

[@BeautifullyBookishBethany]

Lol! So Mac Kids is really a division with its own imprints. Fierce Reads is just an outward facing publicity arm for YA. The publicists who run Fierce Reads also work on other children's books.

[@solrm122]

@@BeautifullyBookishBethany Are divisions sometimes called imprints? I feel like I've had books that call something a "Division of X publisher" in one book and an "Imprint of X publisher" in another. Thank you for taking the time to answer our burning publishing questions!! :)

[@BeautifullyBookishBethany]

@@solrm122 From what I understand division is usually a larger structure than an imprint. It might have its own imprints or not depending on the publishing house, but children's books are usually a separate division from adult titles. Hope that helps!

[@solrm122]

@@BeautifullyBookishBethany thanks!!

[@JayGTheAwkwardBookworm]

Man all of this is so confusing 😂😂 I never know what is going on

[@shulyrose8588]

This was a really helpful breakdown. I think about 1/3 of the books I own are from Tor or Tordotcom 😁

[@BeautifullyBookishBethany]

I have a lot from them as well!