About Five Star

Five Star Publishing, an imprint of Macmillan Library Reference, debuted in 1995 with its first four Western titles. These first edition westerns earned rave reviews in both Publisher's Weekly and Booklist, with more than 50 reviews to date. Five Star is recognized by the Western Writers of America and in 1997 Cynthia Haseloff's "Kiowa Verdict" won the Western Writers of America's Spur Award for best novel. The March 1 issue of Booklist featured extensive coverage in its article, Spotlight on Westerns.  In May of 1997, we increased our Western title count to six each quarter, and then again in June of 1999 to eight titles each quarter.

In October 1996, we launched the hardcover romance series with six titles each quarter.  In June 1999, we launched the new First Edition Romances with four titles releasing quarterly. These four titles were reviewed in Romantic Times Magazine and the launch was featured in Library Journal's May 15, 1999 romance issue.

In March 1998, Five Star Christian Fiction was launched with four titles quarterly, and in November 1998, we began the Five Star Mystery Series with six titles quarterly. In August 2000, the Mystery Series went to eight titles quarterly, at which time the series became exclusively First Edition.

In August 1999, Five Star Publishing became an imprint of Gale.

In 2003, Five Star combined the Original Romance and the Women’s Fiction Series to create our new Expressions Series. The Five Star Expressions series combines the best of both types of tales from both well-known and emerging authors. A strong focus on the wants of female readers is the driving force of this line of original novels.

Also, Speculative Fiction has been renamed Science Fiction/Fantasy. This series consists of hard science fiction, epic fantasy and horror, and offers original novels and short fiction collections from both established masters and the most profound of emerging voices.

The focus of Five Star Publishing is on the library market with more than half of our books sold on standing order.  When a librarian signs up for a standing order, they save both time and money and are assured of being first to get all the new titles in that series. In addition, librarians know that our editors will select the very best titles to be published.