From its humble beginnings in 1925 as a reprint publisher, Random House came to be the world’s largest general trade publisher, owned since 1998 by German media giant Bertelsmann.
Random House is home to world famous, contemporary authors such as John Grisham, Danielle Steel, Michael Crichton, Anne Rice, Dean Koontz and Dr. Seuss and literary legends like James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, William Faulkner and Sinclair Lewis.
About Random House
According to Bertelsmann’s latest annual report, Random House’s revenues in 2008 were €1.7 billion ($2.4 billion) with 50% generated by Random House USA, 15% by Random House Germany, 22% by companies in other European countries and 12% by the remaining imprints worldwide.
Since the opening of Random House U.K. in 1987, the company steadily increased its international presence and today has almost 5,800 employees in120 publishing companies and 19 countries. 11,000 new books are released each year, 15,000 e-book titles are available and 500 million copies sold annually.
The five biggest Random House bestsellers in 2008 were:
- Brisingr – Christopher Paolini
- The Appeal – John Grisham
- Audition – Barbara Walters
- The Audacity of Hope – Barack Obama
- Dreams from My Father – Barack Obama
Random House Submission Guidelines and Careers
The Random House manuscript submission guidelines are clear: Like many big trade publishers, the company does not accept unsolicited manuscripts or manuscript proposals. Authors who would like to have their work considered for publication by Random House are requested to go through an established literary agent.
For anyone interested in working for Random House, the company’s website is a first information point about the publisher, its divisions and publishing program as well as open positions. The career pages are sorted by experience level, starting from interns and entry level to professionals and experienced professionals. “A Day in the Life of…” videos give a good understanding of tasks involved in specific divisions.
The Random House History
Founded in 1925 by Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer, the imprint first published reprints of classic works of literature before broadening their publishing activities just two years later in 1927. Bennett Cerf recalls in his biography At Random: The Reminiscences of Bennett Cerf (Random House 1977): "We just said we were going to publish a few books on the side at random."
It was soon clear that the thus named Random House would take a much more focused approach to publishing and soon commenced its growth process. In the 1930s, Random House started publishing children’s literature and entered reference publishing with the American College Dictionary in 1947. From the 1960s onward, Random House acquired other publishers that complemented its list until it published across many genres and areas of publishing.
Random House Mergers and Acquisitions
There are two ways in which a publishing house can grow: by expanding its publishing list or by acquiring other publishers. Starting in the 1960s, publishing underwent a wave of mergers and acquisitions that Random House actively participated in. Here’s a list of changes in ownership that affected Random House:
- 1960: acquisition of Alfred A. Knopf
- 1961: acquisition of Pantheon books, publisher of international authors
- 1965: aquired by media corporation RCA
- 1973: acquisition of Ballantine Books, publisher of mass market paperbacks
- 1980: acquired by Advance Publications
- 1982: acquisition of Fawcett Books, publisher of paperbacks
- 1984: acquisition of Times Books
- 1986: acquisition of Fodor’s Travel Guides
- 1988: acquisition of the Crown Publishing Group
- 1998: acquired by German media giant Bertelsmann, the current ownership
Random House is a publishing power house with a long history that started in the pioneer days of publishing in New York. The company diversified and expanded its publishing list early on and grew further through well-planned acquisitions. Though owned today by German media company Bertelsmann, Random House has remained editorially independent.
Excellent resources are Random House’s website and Bertelsmann’s annual reports. Readers interested in publishing might find the following articles useful: publisher profiles of Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins and the Penguin Group.
 |
 |
