2012 Ratings by Publisher

In an effort to minimize the books I suffer through, I've started tracking my ratings by both publisher and imprint in a giant spreadsheet. Basically, if a certain publisher or imprint always results in bad ratings for me, I will know to just say no, at least to review copies, where I'll have to send an awkward email to a publicist.

In just a year, I don't have a ton of data for some of the pubs, so I'll just be including those where I've read a reliable sample, which I'm going to call 5 books or more. Even then, a couple of these averages are, I think, misleading, but most of them are about right. So first, here are my average ratings by publisher. Then I'll break it down further for those with imprints.

As you can see on this somewhat ridiculous bar graph, the averages range from 2.8 to 4 in the publishers I've read enough books from to include. Candlewick's, though, is one that is a bit skewed, because 4 of the 6 books I read by them this year were part of a terrible series. I'd requested book four from NetGalley, so I felt like I HAD to read them all. Because of this basic data, I've been seeking out more books from Tor and Bloomsbury, as they obviously get me.

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Random House

Over the course of the year, I read 49 books from 14 different RH imprints, but in only three of them did I read more than 2 books. 

Imprint	# of Books Read	Average Rating
Delacorte BFYR	17	3.76
Knopf BFYR	7	3.71
Random House BFYR	9	3.44

Note how much higher two of these are than the average of 3.5 for Random House as a whole. I don't know that I've learned anything definitive yet, but Delacorte seems to be the most likely imprint for me with regards to RH teen books.

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Macmillan

I only recently started working with Macmillan, so I haven't read nearly as many of their books. I read 22 books published by Macmillan from a total of 6 imprints.

Imprint	# of Books Read	Average Rating
St. Martin's Griffin	4	2.9
Farrar, Straus and Giraux	8	3
Feiwel & Friends	5	2.8

What I've mostly learned here, I think is that their imprints don't tell me much. Ironically, if I were going to avoid a particular one of their imprints, it would be FSG, since I seem to be almost entirely 2.5 and 3 ratings, where the others are all over the place. I won't take any action on them until I have more data though. Besides, my first Macmillan read of the new year, Marissa Meyer's Scarlet (Feiwel & Friends) was a 4.5, so...

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Penguin

Penguin's the publisher I've had the longest relationship with, but, ironically, this means that they also have much lower ratings than they otherwise might have, because it took me a long time to realize that I didn't have to accept every book to for publicists to be willing to work with me. I read 49 Penguin books over 14 imprints, which is, very oddly, the exact same as for Random House.

Imprint	# of Books Read	Average Rating
Penguin Books	7	3.21
Viking Adult	13	3.5
Pamela Dorman Books	4	3.88
Razorbill	5	3.7

Overall, I've had a pretty good experience with Penguin's young adult offerings, but they don't work with me much, so my most read imprints, with the exception of Razorbill, are all from the adult group. In the next year, I'm going to be much more cautious accepting books from the Penguin Books imprint, since I generally like those less well than the other adult imprints.

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Bloomsbury

Oh, Bloomsbury, don't you guys want me to review your books for you? No? Well, that's okay. We're still friends. I read 22 Bloomsbury books broken across 3 imprints.

Imprint	# of Books Read	Average Rating
Bloomsbury USA Children's	13	3.81
Walker Children's	8	4.19

Lesson: read ALL of the Bloomsbury children's books. Well, not all, but pretty much any that look good, because out of those 21, I only had one 2 and one 2.5. For me, that's insane!

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Simon & Schuster

S&S didn't like me much on NG, and I only recently met any of their publicists, so there's a serious lack of data here. I read 14 Simon & Schuster books in 2012, across 7 imprints. Since I mostly read review copies, I just haven't read many of these. I wouldn't include the break down here at all, except that I find the data interesting.

Imprint	# of Books Read	Average Rating
Simon Pulse	4	4.38
S&S BFYR	3	3.5
Touchstone	3	3

The reason I find this so interesting is that at one point on Goodreads, I observed a conversation about how some folks thought Simon & Schuster was publishing some of the worst YA books out there, and I thought it was funny how high my averages are for S&S. Now, maybe they do publish some terrible stuff, but they also publish some amazing things, obviously. Simon Pulse, especially seems awesome, but I haven't read enough for this to be definitive. Touchstone is the imprint I've gotten some review copies from, but, obviously, there books haven't stood out for me yet.

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Hachette Book Group

Hachette used to be very good to me on NetGalley, but, actually, I think most of these are books I bought, borrowed from the library, or got from Orbit. I read 20 books, spread across 7 imprints.

Imprint	# of Books Read	Average Rating
Orbit	9	3.83
Little, Brown BFYR	5	3.6

Fun fact: Orbit is the one and only example of me sending a request for a review copy and that leading to a relationship with a publicist. All the others found me when they deemed me worthy, one way or another. In case you're curious, I requested Mira Grant's Blackout. They were kind enough to also send me Deadline. Plus, my average rating is close to a 4. Is it any surprise that I love Orbit?

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Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

HMH's averages for me definitely suffer from what I like to term NG syndrome. I would request anything that looked remotely interesting on NG, and, for a while there, I read ALL of the books I requested, thinking DNFing was  rude. Thus, I ended up forcing myself through a lot of books I otherwise wouldn't have read. Now that I don't really use NG, I have zero relationship with HMH, and I'll probably read like 3 of their books this year.

Imprint	# of Books Read	Average Rating
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt	4	3
Graphia	4	3.38
HMH Books for Children	3	3.5

Honestly, though I'm not sure how representative this data would be of my reading had NetGalley not been part of the equation, I'm not feeling a burning desire for HMH books. Well, except for Gina Damico's Croak series, which is published under the Graphia imprint; those books rock and everyone should love them.

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HarperCollins

Harper I've actually not really had much of a relationship with, but I won a couple of their giveaways on FB when they did that, and they have the prettiest covers, which lured me into buying/borrowing more of their books. Oh, also, their adult group makes good use of TLC Book Tours, which I love. Thus, I read 46 Harper books over 10 imprints.

Imprint	# of Books Read	Average Rating
Katherine Tegen	3	3
HarperTeen	8	3.06
Balzer + Bray	9	3.56
HarperCollins	4	3.75
Harper	4	3.5
Harper Audio	10	3.45

Harper's one of the publishers where I feel like imprint can be most telling. I feel like I definitely need to watch out for HarperTeen books in particular. While I do really, really like some (Something Strange and Deadly, I'm looking at you), they tend to fall flat for me really reliably; I have two 1.5s and a 2 for HarperTeen books. Katherine Tegen's average is from a 2, a 3, and a 4, so I really don't think that's enough to make a judgment. I believe the HarperCollins imprint is where they publish their premier titles, like Lauren Oliver, so I'm not surprised it's the highest average. Pretty much all Harper books are hit or miss for me, though.

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Tor

While Tor is not a big publisher, they attract my attention often, because they publish the sort of books I love, namely fantasy. Over 2012, I read 10 Tor books across three imprints.

Imprint	# of Books Read	Average Rating
Tor Books	5	3.8
Tor Teen	4	4.13

Basically, I love fantasy. I mean, look at those ratings. Fantasy is my home genre, the one I've been reading the longest. Tor publishes primarily fantasy and science fiction, and I eat that stuff up. I hope to have more Tor in 2013.

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To Sum Up

I'm sharing this just for fun, though I don't know if it will be interesting for anyone but me. A year's data isn't necessarily enough to make any big decisions off of, but I will continue to track this as time goes on, which will hopefully help guide me to books I love and save me from falling for pretty covers.