Zebra Books is an imprint of American publisher Kensington Publishing Corp. As the company's flagship imprint until the late 80s, it currently publishes women's fiction, romantic suspense and bestselling historical, paranormal and contemporary romance. In the past, it was also an iconic publisher of pulp

horror Horror may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Genres *Horror fiction, a genre of fiction ** Japanese horror, Japanese horror fiction **Korean horror, Korean horror fiction * Horror film, a film genre *Horror comics, comic books focusing o ...

, and it also published westerns and humor.

History

Zebra Books was launched in 1975 by Walter Zacharius, who had founded Kensington Publishing the previous year, and Roberta Bender Grossman.. Both of them had previously worked for paperback house Lancer Books, co-founded by Zacharius in 1961. At the time of launching Zebra, Grossman became the youngest president of a publishing house. By keeping a low budget, small staff, and hiring overlooked if not desperate authors, they built Zebra into a powerhouse of cheap, consumable literature, with $10 million in sales annually by the early 1980s.

Romance publishers

Zebra was built mostly on the historical romance genre. It later expanded the romance genre to embrace paranormal romance, adult Western romance and romance titles aimed at Hispanic, black and gay readers. Beating the bushes for overlooked writers and eager first-timers willing to start out cheap, the partners developed the careers of prolific and profit-generating authors like Janelle Taylor and

Katherine Stone Katherine Stone Chase (born 1949 in Seattle, Washington) is an American doctor and writer of romance novels under her maiden name Katherine Stone. She is married to fellow doctor and writer Jack Chase. She studied the English Language at Stanfor ...

. Best-selling authors on the Zebra list include Fern Michaels, Lisa Jackson, Hannah Howell, Janet Dailey,

Victoria Alexander Victoria Alexander (born 1950) is an American author of historical romance novels. She has been nominated for the ''Romantic Times'' Reviewers' Choice Award four times, winning once, for ''A Visit From Sir Nicholas'', which ''Romantic Times'' de ...

Mary Jo Putney Mary Jo Putney (born in New York) is a best-selling American author of over twenty-five historical and contemporary romance novels. She has also published romantic fantasy novels as M.J. Putney. Her books are known for their unusual subject matte ...

, and

Alexandra Ivy Alexandra Ivy is an American novelist mostly known for her ''New York Times'' Best Selling contemporary paranormal series ''Guardians of Eternity''. She also writes regency historicals using the name Deborah or Debbie Raleigh. Her writing has ga ...

Zebra Regency Romance

Zebra Books began publishing traditional Regency romance novels in 1985, classified as Zebra Regency Romance. They generally issued an average of four romance books each month. Zebra Books eventually discontinued its traditional Regency line in October 2005. Authors who wrote for the Zebra Regency romance line included

Kathleen Baldwin Kathleen Baldwin (born Arizona, USA) is an American writer of comic romance novels set in the Regency period. Biography Award-winning author Kathleen Baldwin was born and raised in Arizona, and moved 14 times before high school. The constant m ...

Meredith Bond Meredith is a Welsh Brittonic family name, and is also sometimes used as a girl's or boy's forename. The Welsh form is "Maredudd". People * Meredith (given name) * Meredith (surname) Places Australia * Meredith, Victoria United States * Meredit ...

Shannon Donnelly Shannon Donnelly (b. March 15 CA) is an author of children’s books, romance novels, video games, and non-fiction books. Her work has repeatedly earned 4½ Star Top Pick reviews from Romantic Times magazine, as well as praise from Booklist and ...

, and

Debbie Raleigh Alexandra Ivy is an American novelist mostly known for her ''New York Times'' Best Selling contemporary paranormal series ''Guardians of Eternity''. She also writes regency historicals using the name Deborah or Debbie Raleigh. Her writing has ga ...

Horror publishers

If romance novels built the house of Zebra in the 1970s, horror made it famous in the 1980s. The imprint's first hit horror title was

William W. Johnstone William Wallace Johnstone (October 28, 1938 – February 8, 2004) was an American author most known for his western, horror and survivalist novels. Life and career Early life Born and raised in southern Missouri, Johnstone was the youngest ...

's ''The Devil's Kiss'' in 1980. Knowing their authors were not famous enough to sell books on name alone, Zebra focused on sensational covers.

Skeleton A skeleton is the structural frame that supports the body of an animal. There are several types of skeletons, including the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside ...

s were such a recurrent theme in Zebra's covers that the imprint is nicknamed "the skeleton farm" among collectors. Mainstay authors in Zebra's horror roster were Johnstone, Rick Hautala, and Ruby Jean Jensen. Other horror authors published were

Bentley Little Bentley Little (born 1960 in Mesa, Arizona) is an American author of horror fiction. Publishing an average of a novel a year since 1990, Little avoids publicity and rarely does promotional work or interviews for his writing. Early life Little i ...

Ken Greenhall Ken or KEN may refer to: Entertainment * ''Ken'' (album), a 2017 album by Canadian indie rock band Destroyer. * ''Ken'' (film), 1964 Japanese film. * ''Ken'' (magazine), a large-format political magazine. * Ken Masters, a main character in ...

Joe R. Lansdale Joe Richard Lansdale (born October 28, 1951) is an American writer and martial arts instructor. A prose writer in a variety of genres - Western, horror, science fiction, mystery, and suspense - he's also written comic books and screenplays. Se ...

and

William M. Carney William is a masculine given name of Norman French origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conqu ...

. Though still active in the early 1990s, by 1993 Zebra reduced its horror output to two titles per month. In 1996 it stopped publishing horror authors, focusing on romance and suspense instead.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Zebra Books Book publishing company imprints Romance book publishing companies Book publishing companies based in New York (state)