Random House Children's Books has announced the inception of an e-book publishing program to be called Random View Books. It will launch on November 13, and the debut list will consist of 17 titles retailing for $3.99 each. The e-books will be available in Microsoft Reader, Adobe eBook Reader and Palm Reader formats, and will be sold through online retailers, including the new e-books section of the Yahoo! Web site.
Random House is focusing its efforts on the educational market, to offer teachers, librarians and students an additional way of accessing books from all of the publisher's imprints. "We see Random View Books as a natural extension of our publishing program," said Mary Beth Kilkelly, director of new media marketing and electronic publishing, who will oversee the program.
The launch list consists of middle-grade and young-adult titles by such established authors as Philip Pullman, Christopher Paul Curtis, Jerry Spinelli, Patricia Reilly Giff and Gary Paulsen. Random View will issue new and backlist titles during subsequent publishing seasons; the next list is set for spring 2002.
