Major book publishers

There are now five major book publishers that account for a huge percentage of all English language book sales in the world.

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Penguin Random House

Penguin Random House is the result of a merger of two book publishers (Penguin and Random House) in 2013. They publish more than 15,000 titles and employ more than 10,000 people and are based out of New York City. Notable authors published by Penguin Random House include John Grisham, Lee Child, Arianna Huffington, Danielle Steel, and Dr. Seuss.

HarperCollins

HarperCollins was built out of several companies, including Harper & Brothers, which was founded in 1817, and is currently a subsidiary of News Corp, Rupert Murdoch's massive media empire. Notable authors published by HarperCollins include Patrick O'Brian, Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, Elmore Leonard, Clive Barker, and Michael Crichton.

Macmillan Publishers

Macmillan Publishers was founded in 1843 and continues to operate today under the ownership of Holtzbrinck Publishing Group. It was founded in the UK and continues to operate in London publishing books, academic journals, and magazines for a worldwide audience in more than 70 countries. Notable authors include R.L. Stine, John Kelly, Ben Ratliff, and Susan J. Douglas.

Hachette Book Group

Hachette Book Group is the smallest of the big five publishers with less than 1,500 books published each year. The company operates out of New York City and is a combination of several smaller publishers, starting with Little, Brown and Company, which was formed in 1837. The Time Warner Book Group is the latest addition to the collection. Notable authors published by the Hachette Book Group including Nicholas Sparks, James Patterson, Malcolm Gladwell, Joel Osteen, and David Baldacci.

Simon & Schuster

Simon & Schuster was founded in New York in 1924 and is now a subsidiary of the CBS Corporation. They publish more than 2,000 titles yearly and their popular authors include Stephen King, John Irving, Mary Higgins Clark, and Philippa Gregory.

Amazon Self-Publishing

We can't talk about book publishing without discussing the huge changes brought about by the incredible popularity of Amazon. First it was their drive to lower prices, which enraged publishers around the world. More importantly, their self-publishing system has made it incredibly simple for authors to put their work out into the world and make genuinely good money off of it. If you keep your price between $2.99 and $9.99 Amazon gives the author a 70% royalty, which means you can sell far less copies that would traditionally be necessary and still make a great deal of money.

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Fame, Popularity...?

Many authors have begun their career self-publishing (E.L. James of Fifty Shades of Grey fame is in that class) and moved on to a major publishing house once they've generated sales and popularity. Kindles and e-readers of other varieties are growing in popularity, which means it's a great time to be an author. As long as you have some talent and the will to work you'll find an audience and can carve out a career as a successful, published writer with greater ease than ever before.

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