Many publishers

A sixth grade class from Rochester, NY  writes: “We have been read­ing a lot of your books. Why do you have so many dif­fer­ent publishers?” 

It is true that my books have had many pub­lish­ers. There are a num­ber of rea­sons for that. 

Some­times a par­tic­u­lar book changes pub­lish­ers. Pop­py was first pub­lished by Orchard Books. The paper­back was issued by Avon and then Harper­Collins. Orchard Books was sold to Scholas­tic, and Scholas­tic issued a hard cov­er Pop­py under their imprint. Then Scholas­tic sold Pop­py to Harper­Collins, and they issued the book in all its forms. 

Or, 

S.O.R. Losers was pub­lished by Brad­bury Press. The Man Who was Poe was pub­lished by Orchard Books. The Christ­mas Rat was pub­lished by Atheneum.  But the edi­tor was the same per­son. When a writer works very well with a par­tic­u­lar edi­tor, and that edi­tor changes the place where he/she works, it’s com­mon for the writer to fol­low that edi­tor to their new publisher. 

Or, 

I have worked with a num­ber of pub­lish­ers who no longer exist, such as Lip­pin­cott. The Fight­ing Ground was first pub­lished by Lip­pin­cott, which was then absorbed by Harper­Collins, who still has it in print. 

Or, 

A book like The His­to­ry of Help­less Har­ry was first issued by Pan­theon. The book went out of print, but was lat­er repub­lished by Morrow.

Or, 

What Do Fish Have to Do with Any­thing? is pub­lished by Can­dlewick. Scholas­tic Book Club edi­tions will soon offer the book on their list.

It is con­fus­ing, but then the busi­ness of pub­lish­ing is often con­fus­ing. Nev­er­the­less, for just one exam­ple, though Pop­py has had a num­ber of pub­lish­ers, it has always been the same book. In oth­er words, some­times it’s the pub­lish­er that is chang­ing, not the author.