Random House

As the embattled 39-year-old Australian hacker's lawyers fight his extradition to Sweden, he'll be working on a memoir. The book will be published in the U.S. by Knopf, a division of Random House, and in the U.K. by Canongate. Admirers -- and detractors -- can't wait.

President Barack Obama's children's book, "Of Thee I Sing," has become the fastest-selling picture book in Random House's history. Released a week ago, the book sold 50,000 copies in its first five days.

E-book sales continue to climb. But the popularity of digital titles is forcing publishers to ask some thorny questions about pricing, negotiations with writers and the future of the publishing industry.

Newsweek's former editor-in-chief just happens to be a Pulitze Prize-winning author for Random House, so it's no surprise he's landing there. It's also another example of how the publisher keeps reaching for big names to add to its editorial ranks.

Celebrity books normally get a big marketing push. But the campaign for Decoded, the rap mogul's new book of lyrics, is unprecedented. Thanks to backing from Clear Channel and Microsoft's Bing, it's surely in a league of its own.

After Conde Nast's surprise shuttering of Gourmet last fall, Ruth Reichl, its editor-in-chief, was out of a job. While the 70-year-old title is back as an iPad app, Reichl herself has moved away from magazines and back to book publishing.

Despite -- or probably partly because of -- a considerable public outcry, Tony Blair's memoir is doing brisk business on both sides of the Atlantic. Will George W. Bush find similar success with his book later this fall?

Two of the largest publishing houses have demonstrated again that when authors like Stephenie Meyer or Stieg Larsson become big phenomenons, big sales -- and big profits -- are the result.

Random House and top literary agent Andrew Wylie have settled their fight over his plans to publish e-books of older works from big name authors he represents. But while the battle is over, the settlement announcement raises more questions than it answers about the future of e-publishing.

Janet Evanovich, whose bestselling books feature the romantically challenged bounty hunter Stephanie Plum, has moved to Random House, in a deal worth tens of millions. But as the book business changes, will Random House be able to recover the cost?