Later, HBJ had the inestimable Jane Yolen as an imprint and she had the incomparable Trina Shart Hyman as a cover artist. As someone who shamelessly admits to buying books by their cover, TSH never disappointed. Naturally, the Yolen/TSH combo was a winner.

So yes: I think imprint matters, but you have to be “a hot chick with super-powers” (see also “Firebird”

Beyond that, Soho and Soho Crime really impress me and I have noticed that all of their mysteries have a distinctive flare – a European sensibility that is quite obvious as being “soho” if that makes any sense.(Even when written by US or Aus authors.) I have also found Serpent’s Tail titles to have a lot in common when it comes to originality and almost attitude – they publish stuff I doubt I will find anywhere else.

I also always look forward to Chronicle, both adult and children’s books, because visually its titles are above and beyond most others. They aim for illustrated books that are like no others and they pretty much always hit it out of the park.

For work, though, I tend to look by publisher, to get an idea of how each does certain things and what I can learn from that. It all started in grad school when one of my publishing class assignments was to study HarperCollins’s children’s catalog and draw conclusions about their line. You can learn a lot from what others are doing about what you’d like to implement or avoid.

Nowadays, I don’t tend to pay attention to the publisher if it’s a large one (Tor, Del Rey, etc.), but I pay attention to imprints. I definitely give any book with the Firebird logo a glance, because I trust Sharyn November’s taste, and I’m starting to look for Razorbill as well. I avoid Luna largely because I haven’t found one that I like yet. I also check for Beacon Press’ Bluestreak imprint, Small Beer, etc.

I notice much, much more for manga, and I always check the publisher for those. I know Go Comi’s price points are higher, but that they have stuff people rec, Del Rey is usually pretty good, Viz has the big stuff, TokyoPop can be variable, but I like the quality of the translations (unlike Viz, sometimes), and then there are the newer publishers in the field that are bringing in more manhwa and yaoi and etc. And CMX keeps having cheap paper, argh!

I find a lot of romance readers pay more attention to publisher, because they like Avon Historicals or Red Dress ink chick lit or whatever. But not so much in other genres (maybe sci fi?)

Or maybe that’s just me.

there are books that, on the basis of imprint/publisher alone, i will choose not to buy, or at least to wait on.

Covers have a lot to do with it. Baen has a very distinctive style, for example — and I find it so ghastly that I’ll buy any edition other than theirs, if I have a choice.

I notice publishers’ attention to detail, too. Right now I’m in the process of importing (slowly, as I find copies cheap enough to offset overseas shipping) the current Arrow (UK) editions of Georgette Heyer’s novels. Their gorgeous covers caught my attention, but I wasn’t desperate to own them until I discovered that the Harlequin reprints were full of disastrous typos. I’ve bought over a dozen of the Arrow copies so far, and found one typo in the lot. That kind of thing earns my loyalty.