New York-based Simon & Schuster was founded in 1924 to publish crossword puzzles. Today it is owned by the CBS Corporation and offers a wide variety of books, including fiction, nonfiction, and children's books. They operate such recognizable imprints as Pocket Books, Scribner, and Little Simon.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, headquartered in Boston, was formed by the merger of two major publishers, Houghton Mifflin Company and Harcourt Publishing in 2007. Known for textbooks, the company also sells a full line of fiction under its Houghton Mifflin trade line.
Two large publishers owned by overseas interests are HarperCollins and Random House, both based in New York. HarperCollins is owned by Australian media giant News Corporation and produces an assortment of fiction and nonfiction through imprints Avon, Harper Mass Market, Harper Paperback, and William Morrow, among others. German-based Bertelsmann owns Random House and its subdivisions, including Bantam, Delacorte, Dell, Delray, The Dial Press, and Anchor.
Two international companies with major U.S. operations are Penguin Books, founded in London, and Harlequin Enterprises, situated in Toronto.
The United States has many independent presses and regional publishers, among them McPherson & Company, located in Kingston, New York. It publishes contemporary American fiction and cultural titles through its various imprints. Holloway House, in Los Angeles, seeks stories about African-American experiences.
Large independent publishers include Pushcart Press and The Overlook Press. Pushcart, based in Wainscott, New York, offers general fiction and short story collections. Overlook, operating in the heart of the publishing world in Manhattan, has landed some of America's best-known writers, including Edward Albee and David Mamet. Its various imprints focus on fiction, children's stories, and popular culture.
Children's publishers offer everything from toddler board books to young adult novels. Among those targeting very young children are Massachusetts-based Charlesbridge Publishing, and Illinois-based Albert Whitman & Company. Boyds Mills, based in Honesdale, Pennsylvania and best known for the magazine "Highlights for Children," targets older readers with a line of middle grade and young adult books.
New York's Holiday House and San Francisco's Chronicle Books run the full gamut, from the very young to readers in their late teens.
Several U.S. companies lead the way in the e-book market. Many of these companies offer a narrow selection of genres, focusing particularly on science fiction or romance. Publishers with more general interests include Ebookpublishing of Robbinsville, North Carolina, Atlantic Bridge of Indianapolis, and Awe-Struck Publishing of Cincinnati.
Self-publishing, today rebranded as print on demand, is dominated by Author Solutions of Bloomington, Indiana, which owns three of the biggest vanity publishers---Author House, iUniverse, and Xlibris. Lulu, of Morrisville, North Carolina, prints novels and nonfiction, but also has its own poetry line.