Random House | featured news

Random House Children's Books said Wednesday it will publish a recently discovered manuscript with illustrations called "What Pet Should I Get" on July 28.

The publisher plans at least two more books, based on materials found in 2013 in the author's home in La Jolla, California, by his widow and secretary.

Best-selling author Beth Reeks writes about what she knows, and she knows plenty about being a teenager. The British 17-year-old captured the universe of crushes, cliques and first kisses in her book “The Kissing Booth,” which secured her a three-book deal from Random House. Reeks, whose pen name is Beth Reekles, wrote the book when she was only 15 and was frustrated with the reading choices available for kids her age.

The proposed merger of Penguin and Random House has been given the go-ahead by the European Commission. Brussels said the merged business - which will be the world's largest book publisher - would not raise competition concerns, because it will "face several strong competitors".

Thomas Mallon's novel about the scandal that brought down Richard Nixon is a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner award for fiction. Published by Random House Inc., Mallon's "Watergate" was among five nominees for the $15,000 award. Three other books announced Wednesday were published by smaller presses, as judges bypassed such high-profile works of fiction as Louise Erdrich's "The Round House" and Junot Diaz's "This Is How You Lose Her."

When you see a merger between two giants in a declining industry, it can look like the financial version of a couple having a baby to save a marriage. At least that was my thought when Random House and Penguin, two of the world’s six largest publishers, announced that they were coming together last month. Ever since Amazon began ripping apart the book business, the largest houses have been looking for a way to fight back. If this merger is any indication, they have chosen an old-fashioned strategy: Size.

Education and publishing group Pearson Plc and Germany's Bertelsmann said on Monday they have agreed to combine their publishing divisions, Penguin and Random House, with Bertelsmann holding the upper hand in the new entity.

Random House, a unit of Bertelsmann, is buying Smashing Ideas, a digital firm that creates book apps.

Amanda Hocking, the 26-year-old author who shot to fame by selling more than a million copies of her self-published books, has signed up with a traditional publisher for her next series.St. Martin’s Press, part of Macmillan, will publish Ms. Hocking’s “Watersong” series, four books in the young-adult paranormal genre.A heated auction for the rights to publish her books began early last week, and several major publishers, including Random House, Simon & Schuster and HarperCollins, dropped out as the price climbed into the seven figures.

Random House said that all 23 books by John Grisham will be made available as electronic books, after a long delay that reflected the best-selling author's qualms.