Alpha Books, a member of Penguin Random House, is an American publisher best known for its Complete Idiot's Guides series. It began as a division of Macmillan. Pearson Education acquired Macmillan General Reference (MGR) from Simon & Schuster in 1998 and retained Complete Idiot's Guides while the rest of MGR was sold to IDG Books.[1] Alpha moved from Pearson Education to Penguin Group in 2003. Alpha became part of sister company DK in 2012.[2]
As of 2021, the Complete Idiot's Guides contains over 120 books.[3]