| Founded: | 1956 |
| Founder: | Samuel Weiser |
| Country: | United States |
| Headquarters: | Newburyport, Massachusetts |
| Distribution: | self-distribution (US) Georgetown Publications (Canada) Brumby Sunstate (Australia) Hay House (South Africa) Deep Books (Europe) Curreri World Services (Asia)[1] |
| Publications: | Books |
| Genre: | New Age, occult |
| Imprints: | Red Wheel, Weiser Books, Disinformation Books, Turning Stone Press, Career Press, New Page Books |
Red Wheel/Weiser, also known in different periods in its history as RedWheel/Weiser/Conari and Samuel Weiser, Inc., is a book publisher with three imprints: Red Wheel, Weiser Books and Conari Books. It is America's second-largest publisher of occult and New Age books, behind Llewellyn Worldwide, and is also one of the oldest American publishers to concentrate exclusively on that genre. It publishes on average 60-75 new titles per year and maintains a large backlist, partly of books that it originally published, and partly of older public domain rare occult books.
This main imprint is also the oldest. It was founded as Samuel Weiser, Inc. in 1956, a time when few other publishers were willing to tackle occult subjects, and was originally an offshoot of the New York City retailer, Weiser Antiquarian Books. This imprint publishes the backlist and continues to acquire books on occultism, astrology, esoteric subjects, Eastern religions, Wicca and related topics.
Red Wheel was founded in 2000 as an imprint for spiritually oriented or occult self-help and how-to books, and at that time the company name was changed from Samuel Weiser, Inc. to RedWheel/Weiser, with several other variations being commonly seen, including Weiser, Inc.
This imprint was acquired in 2002. Before this, Conari Books had been a separate publisher, based in Berkeley, California, dating back to 1989. This imprint focuses on books that view sociology and parenting issues through a spiritual or New Age perspective. Mango Publishing acquired Conari in 2019.[2]
Turning Stone was founded in 2012. It is a self-publishing imprint in collaboration with Hampton Roads Publishing Company and Hierophant Publishing.[3]
Disinformation Books was founded in 1997 as the publishing division of Disinformation. It was acquired by Red Wheel/Weiser in 2012.[4]
Career Press was founded in 1985 by Ron Fry and is focused on business books. Red Wheel/Weiser acquired Career Press in 2017.[5]
New Page Books was founded in 1999 as the general nonfiction imprint of Career Press.[5]
Phanes Press was an independent book publisher until acquired by Red Wheel Weiser Conari in 2004. Phanes Press was founded by David Fideler[6] in 1985 and published books concerning "the spiritual, philosophical and cultural traditions of the Western world," and topics ranging from "alchemy to Sufism, from Gnosticism to Neoplatonism" to the traditions of the Pythagoreans.[7] The company's publications were distributed by Words Distributing Company, which had 23 publisher clients in 2000.[8]
The company had published 52 titles by 2004, a so-called "micro publisher",[9] when it was purchased by Red Wheel/Weiser.[10] Reprints of Phanes titles were slated to appear under the Weiser Books imprint after the acquisition.
Among Phanes best selling titles were The Pythagorean Sourcebook and Awakening Osiris. Other titles published by Phanes included:
The company has been previously located in Boston and in York Beach, Maine for most of its history. In 2006, the editorial department moved to San Francisco and the sales and marketing department moved to Newburyport, Massachusetts.