Reading in Public No. 15

My unofficial, no-research, completely personal, all vibes guide to publishing imprints

Hey, readers!

It’s been way too long since I’ve shared a Reading in Public piece. I don’t know about you but while I always think of summer as a time for catching up and relaxing, it is inevitably one of the busiest seasons of the year. Time has gotten away from me again and again, and while I have so many ideas for this series, carving out the time needed to keep it running has been challenging. Thanks for baring with me as this regular but sporadic series has become less regular and more sporadic. I’m looking forward to sharing more meta reading thoughts and musings this fall as we settle back into a routine and get some hours back when Louise starts school.

For today, I’m very excited to put out my unofficial, no-research, completely personal, all vibes guide to my favorite publishers. This was a reader request in response to a few offhand comment in a previous Reading in Public newsletter, and I’ve been letting the idea tumble around my brain ever since.

I often make decisions about what to read based on a book’s publishing imprint. If you’re unfamiliar with that term, “imprint” means the smaller divisions within a publishing house. There are currently only five BIG publishing houses (known as the Big Five…creative, I know), but they all have many imprints within them, each with their own editors, acquisition specialists, author roster, and vibe. For example, the publisher Penguin Random House includes a huge swath of imprints including Riverhead, A.A. Knopf, Penguin Press, and more. Any publishing house that’s not part of the Big Five, is referred to as an independent publisher. They may also have imprints within, but they are, of course, a lot smaller over all.

Knowing what imprints you’re in sync with can make for some really satisfying reading. Here’s a list of some of my favorite imprints and how I think about their books. This is completely unresearched and just for fun. I’d love to know your favorite publishers and imprints and how you think of them, so please tell me below!

The unofficial FictionMatters no-research, completely personal, all vibes guide to publishing imprints

A. A. Knopf: well-edited, engaging, readable literary fiction; I just implicity trust these guys [examples: Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin; There There by Tommy Orange; Signal Fires by Dani Shapiro; Stay With Me by Ayòbámi Adébáyò; Jenny Offill books]

Biblioasis: quirky and/or provocative novels; lots of French Canadian translations [examples: Lucy Ellman books; Madame Victoria by Catherine Leroux]

Bloomsbury: sweeping stories and accessible fantasy [examples: Piranesi by Susanna Clarke; The House of Doors by Tan Twan Eng; Samantha Shannon; Sarah J Maas]

Catapult/Counterpoint: good books doing things you won’t see elsewhere; urgent, voicey novels; explorations of stories on the margins, particularly LGBT voices [examples: I Keep My Exoskeletons to Myself by Marisa Crane; Juno Loves Legs by Karl Geary]

Doubleday: narrative nonfiction for fiction lovers and contemporary fiction that leans literary [The Wager by David Grann; The Crane Wife by C.J. Hauser; Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus; Colson Whitehead books]

Ecco: emotionally provocative, sometimes weird and always interesting stories [examples: Chouette by Claire Oshetsky; The Affairs of the Falcóns by Melissa Rivera]

Europa: beautiful and quiet fiction; subtle stories in translation [The Postcard by Anne Berest; The Promise by Damon Galgut; Mieko Kawakami books]

FSG: experimental, but readable literary fiction; structurally innovative novels; critically acclaimed, but less widely read titles [examples: Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton; August Blue by Deborah Levy; The Book of Goose by Yiyun Li; Catherine Lacey books]

Graywolf: poetry and poetic fiction [examples: Signs Preceding the End of the World by Yuri Herrera; If an Egyptian Cannot Speak English by Noor Naga; Percival Everett books]

Grove Atlantic: exceptional literary fiction telling wholly original stories [examples: Enter Ghost by Isabella Hammad; The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen; The Bird King by G. Willow Wilson; Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart; Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata]

Harper Books: all over the place, but trustworthy fiction [examples: Tom Lake by Ann Patchett; Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes]

HarperVia: Harper’s edgier little sister [The Laughter by Sonora Jha; People Collide by Isle McElroy]

Hogarth: literary stories with social commentary and emotional resonance [examples: The Furrows by Namwali Serpell; The Vegetarian by Han Kang; Mercury Pictures Presents by Anthony Marra; Sally Rooney]

MCD: FSG’s spinoff that’s a little less experimental in structure but a little more “out there” in plot [examples: The Mere Wife by Maria Dahvana Headley; Sorrowland by River Solomon; Jeff Vandermeer books]

Norton: serious books for serious readers [examples: The Beauty of Your Face by Sahar Mustafah; The Burning Girl by Claire Messud; The Children’s Bible by Lydia Millet]

One World: novels from emerging voices; stories that have been historically marginalized [examples: The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates; Sabrina & Corina by Kali Fajardo-Anstine]

Penguin Press: engaging but niche nonfiction and a chosen few exemplar fiction authors [examples: Zadie Smith, Celeste Ng, Bengamin Labatut, Ottessa Moshgegh]

Riverhead: cool kid literary fiction; buzzy, accessible lit fic, emerging new voices and mid-career literary rockstars; literary stories about early adulthood that appeal to readers in early adulthood [examples: The Long Answer by Anna Hogeland; When We Lost Our Heads by Heather O’Neill; Brit Bennet, Hernan Diaz, Chang-Rae Lee, James McBride, Lauren Groff, the list goes on…]

Scribner: honestly no idea, but they have some big winners [examples: Briefly, A Delicious Life by Nell Stevens; Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward]

Tin House: quiet, atmospheric novels; moody gothic stories [examples: The Wild Hunt by Emma Seckel; The House on Vesper Sands by Paraic O’Donnel; Clair Fuller books]

Viking: elevated contemporary fiction and genre fiction; not necessarily innovative or highly literary, but solid and well-told stories [examples: I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai; Pineapple Street by Jenny Jackson; Talking at Night by Claire Daverley; J. Ryan Stradal books]

Vintage Anchor: all the paperbacks plus pretty editions of classics

What imprints do you love? What did I miss? What descriptors would you add to my list?

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-Sara