Publishers and Their Imprints

[Epicurus]

I've been trying to get my head around the publishing business in preparation for getting my iPad. Apple signed some deals with some publishers, but it is hard to tell what that really means without taking a look at the larger corporate structures. Even then, just because a particular press signs a deal doesn't mean all their back catalog will appear in the store overnight. The best anyone can hope for is a positive indication for the future. Some of these companies are onboard with Apple to some degree, others have only made vague pronouncements about ebooks in general. My hope is that by better understanding the structure at work here, I can get a better picture of how the iBookstore content might evolve in the months to come.

Random House

Random House Publishing Group

Ballantine Books
Bantam
Delacorte
DelRey
Dial Press
Modern Library​

Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

Alfred A. Knopf
Anchor Books
Doubleday
Everyman's Library
Pantheon Books
Vintage​

Random House Information Group

Fodor's Travel
Princeton Review
Sylvan Learning​

Crown Publishing Group

Billboard
Crown
Three Rivers Press​

Pearson PLC

The Penguin Group - Launch partner with Apple

Avery
Dutton
Plume
Puffin
Penguin
Penguin Putnam
Viking​

Pearson Education

Addison-Wesley
Prentice Hall
Pearson Scott Foresman​

Financial Times
The Economist​

Thomson Reuters Publishing

Reuters
Westlaw
FindLaw
Physician's Desk Reference
Arden Shakespeare
Web of Science
EndNote
Derwent World Patent Index
Thomson Scientific​

O'Reilly Media - Offers DRM free EPUB books already

Microsoft Press
No Starch Press
Paraglyph Press
PC Publishing
Pragmatic Bookshelf
Rocky Nook
SitePoint​

John Wiley & Sons

Betty Crocker
Blackwell
Cliff Notes
For Dummies
Frommer's
WROX
Webster's New World​

Simon & Schuster - Launch partner with Apple

Atria
Free Press
Howard Books
Pocket Books
Scribner
Touchstone and Fireside Group​

McGraw-Hill

McGraw-Hill Higher Education
Glencoe/McGraw-Hill
Macmillan/McGraw-Hill
McGraw-Hill Professional
Wright Group/McGraw-Hill​

Hachette Book Group - Launch partner with Apple

Springboard Press
Little, Brown and Company
Back Bay Books
Orbit Press​

Springer Science+Business Media

Springer-Verlag
Birkhauser-Verlag
Apress
Kluwer​

Taylor & Francis Group

Routledge
CRC Press
Marcel Dekker
Institute of Physics​

Perseus Books Group

DaCapo
Basic Books
Vanguard Press​

Harper Collins - Launch partner with Apple

Avon
Ecco
Harper Perennial​

W. W. Norton

Norton Critical Editions
Pegasus Books
Pushcart Books​

Macmillan Publishers - Launch partner with Apple

Nature (journal)
Pan Macmillan​

Elsevier

Academic Press
Pergamon Press​

Houghton Mifflin

Harcourt​

Dover Publishing

W. H. Freeman

World Scientific Publishing

--

And then there are the University presses, most of which are independently run.

University of Chicago Press
MIT Press
Oxford University Press
Cambridge University Press
Princeton University Press

 

[Slava]

Thank you for posting this, it's pretty useful info.

 

[Squeak825]

Your McGraw-Hill one is wrong.

Harcourt is part of Houghton Mifflin.

McGraw-Hill has the following imprints:
McGraw-Hill Higher Education
Glencoe/McGraw-Hill
Macmillan/McGraw-Hill
McGraw-Hill Professional
Wright Group/McGraw-Hill

 

[talkingnewmedia]

One of the problems is that the word "partner" can mean different things.

For instance, HarperCollins, Hachette, Penguin, Macmillan and Simon & Shuster have all signed deals to appear in iBookstore, while Random House has not. On the other hand, Penguin is fully committed to the iPad but has said they they want to create individual apps for books. They are all "partners" (except for Random House).

Another point: the "deal". Some web sites have been reporting that these publishers have signed "deals", when all they really mean is that they have "committed" to selling through the iPad.

My guess is that those waiting for the textbook publishers may be disappointed: there is so much profit in textbook publishing that few of the big players -- like McGraw-Hill and Pearson -- will not want to do anything that will effect their profits. That means they will either price their books very high in iBookstore, or else create expensive apps.

 

[Squeak825]

My guess is that those waiting for the textbook publishers may be disappointed: there is so much profit in textbook publishing that few of the big players -- like McGraw-Hill and Pearson -- will not want to do anything that will effect their profits. That means they will either price their books very high in iBookstore, or else create expensive apps.

You are right.....McGraw-Hill and Pearson will not sell through the iBookstore and give 30% of the revenue to APPL.

Apps will be free in which you type in a redemption code that you buy offline to get your books.

 

[Epicurus]

Your McGraw-Hill one is wrong.

Thanks. I missed the 2007 merger. I've updated the first post.

With respect to Apple's "partnerships" with these publishers, every indication I've gotten from what little has been said in public is that the names Apple flashed at the initial announcement had at least agreed to take a look at the iPad and offer something for it. Any one of these publishers has tens of thousands of books in the catalog, and nobody really expects any significant fraction of that number to be in the iBookstore on day one. The Kindle has been at this for years and it is still missing some of my favorite books...

The one thing I learned from trying to put together that list is that publishers are not exactly working in a streamlined corporate structure. Imprints and divisions are sold from one group to another every year or so, with partial ownership deals popping up all over the place. When Apple spoke about the work the Kindle did in paving the way for the iPad, they weren't kidding. I can't imagine the trouble Amazon had to go through to get their initial ebook offerings.

And as for textbooks, they are moving to ebooks faster than anybody, but they are targeting a subscription model. This lets them dump the print publishing costs (physical production and shipping) and kill the used book market in one move. Having a custom app gets their content on the iPad and avoids the iBookstore EPUB download issue. I frankly hate this proposition, but that's how it'll be starting out. It won't be until every college student has an iPad and access to equally compelling alternative reference material (EPUB, web, or other) that "textbook" prices will normalize. But that's a long way off yet.