Random House, E-book | featured news

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.