Do different publishers specialise in different things?

Do different publishers specialise in different things?

Alexandra Pringle (Editor in Chief) gives expert video advice on: What are publishers not looking for?; Where or how do I find a publisher?; What are the most common stumbling blocks for new writers trying to get published? and more...

Sometimes there are very specialist niche publishers, like the reference publishers, medical publishers or legal publishers. There are also what we call general trade publishers, and Bloomsbury is one of those. Usually they are big corporations and they have lots of different companies within them. If, for example, it's Random House publishers, within them there are the more commercial sides which house Heinemann, Hutchinson and Century, and they have Hour which is their paperback arm. The more literary side is Cape, Chateau and Bodley Head, and they have vintages for their paperback arm. There are lots of different towns and villages within most of the publishing companies. Bloomsbury is just one company, but we have our children's division, and most general publishers really publish fiction and non-fiction for what we call the general audience, rather than a specialist audience.