Publishing houses have hundreds of imprints. What are they exactly?

The book publishing market share is heavily concentrated in five or so publishing houses: Penguin Random House, Macmillan, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins, and Hachette. But these publishers all have a vast collection of imprints, and often it seems a book is more closely associated with its imprint than its parent publisher. My question is: What exactly are imprints and what are they for? The easy answer would be branding but it seems each imprint operates more or less individually on its books, implying it’s not just for appearances sake and might have a deeper purpose.

The big five publishers collectively have hundreds of imprints, spanning categories like classic literature, romance, science fiction, fantasy and business. 

There are imprints like Golden Books, a brand from Random House whose children’s books have a recognizable gold-foil spine. Scribner, an imprint from Simon & Schuster whose published authors include Stephen King and Pulitzer Prize-winner Jennifer Egan. And Harlequin Books, an imprint from HarperCollins that publishes the famed Harlequin romance novels. 

Not all imprints have strong brand recognition among the public, but imprints have a purpose within the publishing world, helping agents know which brand they should pitch to, according to publishing experts that Marketplace spoke to. The people who work at imprints have also developed expertise on books within their brand and know how to market them. 

To read the full article on marketplace.org, click here