Diversified Publishing

About Diversified Publishing

Diversified Publishing is a Random House (now Penguin Random House) division name that appears as the publisher on many large-print editions of new American bestsellers, rather than an independent publishing house.

Random House created a Diversified Publishing Group in October 1998 under Jenny Frost, previously publisher of the BDD Audio Publishing Group. It brought together Random House Value Publishing and Random House Large Print. In 2000 Publishers Weekly reported that Random House had relaunched its large-print line the year before with a marketing budget of over $1 million: titles were set in 16-point type and issued at the same time and price as the ordinary trade editions, with 15 to 20 new titles a season.

The group name survives: a Penguin Random House "About Us" page lists a Penguin Random House Diversified Publishing Group among the company's divisions. In library and bookseller data, "Diversified Publishing" is attached to editions of titles such as Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow and As Good As Dead, with Random House Large Print also named on those records.

For collectors this matters: a book credited to Diversified Publishing is usually a large-print edition issued alongside a trade edition from another Penguin Random House imprint (Knopf, in the case of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow), not the first edition itself.