Reading this page will cause headaches, the publishing world is confusing, with lots of interchangeable terms, owners, imprints, publishers, divisions, groups and private multinational conglomerate corporations. If this page doesn't make any sense to you, that's because it doesn't make any sense. Hope this helps - Torch
Eragon was originally published by Paolini International.
The publishing rights to the Inheritance Trilogy were purchased by Random House Children's Books in 2003 through their imprint Knopf. All subsequent WOE books have also been published by Random House Children's Books.
Basic Publishing Explained
What is a Publishing House?
“…Publishers, are made up of smaller companies which operate independently called ‘houses’… each of which is creatively and editorially independent and made up of its own team of publishing experts, including editors, designers, marketers and publicists. Each publishing house, in turn, is made up of several publishing imprints”
From this article by Pengiun with alot of other jargon.
What is an imprint?
“An imprint is a subsidiary of a publishing company, and it’s the name that appears on the book as its publisher.
Imprints typically specialise in subject matter, audience, or genre. For example, Plume is a paperback imprint of Penguin Random House that publishes LGBTQ titles…Generally, it works this way: Publishers have divisions, and divisions have imprints.
- Publisher > division > imprint
- Penguin Random House is the publisher > Penguin Publishing Group is the division > Plume is the imprint”
I stole this from Written Word Media if you want to read into it more and get more confused, click here
Imprints used for english editions of WOE books
Knopf
An Imprint used for all US hardbacks and Trade Paperbacks.
Random House Large Print
An Imprint used for all large format paperbacks. This has only been used for one WOE edition (FWW).
Doubleday
An Imprint used for all non-US large format hardbacks and paperbacks. This Imprint hasn’t been used since the Penguin Random House merger.
Some of these Imprints are also Publishers; they just don’t hold the rights to WOE, they are held by Random House Children’s Books, which is a division of Penguin Random House.
Penguin
An Imprint used for all non-US hardbacks and Paperbacks. This is the only imprint now used for non-US editions.
Laurel-Leaf
An Imprint used for US hardbacks pocket sized editions, only for three WOE Editions. This Imprint hasn’t been used since 2006.
Corgi
An Imprint used for all non-US small format paperbacks. This Imprint hasn’t been used since the Penguin Random House merger however, Corgi is still mentioned on the copyright pages of Penguin paperbacks.
How do all these imprints link to Random House Children’s? Bertelsmann.
Bertelsmann is a private multinational conglomerate corporation founded in 1835 in Germany.
Doubleday is a publisher that was founded in 1897 in the USA.
Alfred A. Knopf is a publisher that was founded in 1915 in the USA.
Dell Publishing is a publisher that was founded in 1921 in the USA.
Random House is a publisher that was founded in 1927 in the USA.
Penguin Books is a publisher that was founded in 1935 in the UK.
Bantam Books is a publisher that was founded in 1945 in the USA
Transworld is a publisher that was founded in 1950 in the UK.
Laurel Leaf is an imprint created by Dell
Corgi is an imprint created by Transworld
Random House Large Print is an imprint of Random House
Random House Children’s Books is a division of Penguin Random House
In the 1950s, Dell created the Laurel Leaf imprint.
In 1976, Doubleday bought Dell
In 1986, Bertelsmann bought Doubleday
In 1950, Bantam established Transworld as its British division with Corgi as an imprint
In 1980, Bertelsmann acquired full ownership of Bantam.
In 1998, Bertelsmann bought Random House.
Penguin was bought by Pearson Longman in 1970.
In 2012, Pearson entered into talks with Bertelsmann to combine the two publishing companies.
Random House merged with Penguin in July 2013 and is now Penguin Random House.