The book publishing industry in North America is primarily dominated by a few very large conglomerates that own a great many imprints.
Most of the books you’ll find in your local bookstore are published by one of these large publishers. Most of them have offices all over the United States and Canada, and they publish thousands of books each year.
When you hear about the billions of dollars made in the book publishing industry, it is made by these large publishers.
Then there are mid-sized trade publishers. They usually have pretty good distribution agreements that get their titles in bookstores, though they tend not to have the same advertising budgets as the big houses, and tend not to be in the bidding in auctions for titles by celebrities and major authors.
They do find new talent, and often don’t require an agent to submit a manuscript.
Then there are small publishers who publish one or two titles each year, and self-publishers who only publish the books they write themselves. There are a great number of these publishers, but they amount for only a small piece of the book publishing pie.
