In 2026, Harper Collins India will be launching Harper Faith — an inclusive list of books that celebrate the beauty and power of belief. “Deeply rooted in India’s multi-faith heritage, these books will bring alive prayer, pilgrimage, and philosophy across India’s religious traditions for the spiritual seeker, the cultural historian, the curious reader, the young and the old,” says Akriti Tyagi, director-marketing at Harper Collins India. Another new imprint from the publisher is going to be Harper Learning, targeted at educators and parents of learners, including the neurodiverse and differently-abled, across age groups. Next year, Simon & Schuster India says it plans to launch Scribner locally for “prestigious fiction and non-fiction titles”.

This year in August, Westland launched the India Comics Project, a new imprint for comics and graphic novels, in collaboration with the French Embassy and the French Institute in India. The imprint will adapt classics from Indian languages into graphic novels in English. Earlier, in May this year, Westland launched a new LGBTQIA+ imprint, in collaboration with Godrej DEI Lab, to amplify queer voices across genres (non-fiction, poetry, fiction). The imprint kicked off with Desi Queers: LGBTQ+ South Asians and Cultural Belonging, and plans six more titles this year. Last year, Westland had launched a dedicated imprint for ‘speculative fiction’ (IF) and rebranded its autonomous imprint Write Order Publications as Indie Press, a more adventurous-spirited line of books in English and Indian languages.

It was market leader Penguin Random House that really set the trend of imprints. In the past five years, it has launched five imprints. Penguin Veer, launched in 2021, for instance, celebrates India’s armed forces legacy; Penguin Play, established in 2023, dives into the world of sports; and Penguin Swadesh was set up in 2023 to consolidate its Hindi and other Indian language publishing.

This year, the publishing house launched Penguin Eight to highlight literature from northeast India, and Penguin Tattva to explore Indian spiritual and philosophical traditions.

Print rush

So why are imprints booming suddenly? “Creating imprints allows us to meaningfully organise our publishing, build genre-specific communities, and grow with purpose. It gives each list a defined home and identity, and offers readers a clearer discovery path,” explains Manoj Satti, SVP–Sales, Product and Marketing at Penguin Random House India.

Is the launch of a new imprint an editorial or marketing decision? Both, say publishers. “Editorial identifies the creative gap or opportunity, marketing and sales gauge reader appetite and market trends. Penguin Play, for instance, emerged from a growing interest in sports writing, while Penguin Eight filled a cultural gap in mainstream representation from northeast India,” says Satti.

“From an editorial perspective, it’s primarily about focus and ownership. It allows us to think about what and how to commission new books within a specific area of interest, and to plan title count and numbers with greater clarity. From the marketing point of view, it’s about targeting particular readerships and shaping publicity and book discussions accordingly,” says Karthika VK, Publisher of Westland Books

She says imprints evolve in different ways. Sometimes a publisher may acquire an imprint or a smaller publishing unit and make it part of their suite. Sometimes an editor may join a publishing house and start an imprint that’s built on their reputation and taste. “In our case, we identified what we perceived as a gap on the bookshelves and created imprints that would allow us to focus on acquiring books and writers for that specific shelf. Like IF, our imprint for Indian speculative fiction, or QD (Queer Directions) for LGBTQ+ literature. We use the launch to bring attention to our interest in the area and actively commission books for it,” she explains.

Chapter and verse

Other than new imprints, are publishers doing any marketing innovations to grow readership?

Says Satti, “We’re constantly exploring inventive ways to make books visible and desirable in a content-saturated world. Some of our campaigns focus on contextual relevance — for instance, this Diwali our campaign reframed books as meaningful festive gifts, while the monsoon campaign paired books with a hot cup of tea, and ‘Fiction Addiction Dhamaka’ promoted reading fiction for fun.”

He says Penguin Random House not only hosts book readings and workshops but also curates reading lists to promote reading. “We’re also agile in how we market: from creatively tying books to viral trends and pop culture moments, to building digital-first communities that celebrate reading as lifestyle and entertainment.”

The growing culture of literature festivals — from Jaipur to Kozhikode — is helping publishing houses too. But many are doing events of their own. Take Simon & Schuster, which inked a partnership — called Literary Escapes — with the Radisson Group to bring alive the experience of reading in a different format. Over curated wine-and-cheese evenings, the magic of words unfolds as an author reads aloud his book, and a discussion ensues. Publishers are certainly looking beyond the pages to reshape the industry.

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Published on November 17, 2025