Penguin Books

Penguin Books Limited is a British publishing house that was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John. Originally an imprint of publishers The Bodley Head, Penguin became a separate company the following year. Penguin revolutionised publishing in the 1930s with its inexpensive paperbacks, sold through Woolworths and other shops for sixpence, bringing high-quality fiction and non-fiction to the mass market. When the first Penguin paperbacks were launched in 1935, they were priced at just sixpence, the same as a packet of cigarettes, making quality literature affordable to a mass audience. Its success showed that large audiences existed for serious books. It also affected modern British society through its books concerning politics, the arts and science.

From the Wikipedia article “Penguin Books”, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

An imprint is a brand inside a larger publishing house, often with its own editors and list. Imprints of large groups usually acquire through literary agents; read recent titles to see whether your book fits the list, then target agents who sell to it.