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Urban_scribe
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Posted on Friday, April 04, 2008 - 08:27 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Okay, so I've been scratching my head ever since this popped up in my inbox yesterday. For now I can only say that I'm reserving my opinion on this until more info comes my way.


Date: 04/03/2008
Author: Erin Crum
Subject: ROBERT S. MILLER TO JOIN HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS

Contact:
Erin Crum
HarperCollins Publishers
(212) 207-7223
Erin.Crum@HarperCollins.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE



ROBERT S. MILLER TO JOIN HARPERCOLLINS PUBLISHERS


NEW YORK, NY (April 3, 2008) - HarperCollins Publishers today announced it has signed publishing veteran Robert S. Miller to develop and launch a new global publishing program based on a non-traditional business model. Miller will start at HarperCollins on Monday, April 14, 2008, at the London Book Fair, and will report directly to Jane Friedman, President and CEO of HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide.

After founding and building a very successful publishing company for Disney, Miller will join HarperCollins to develop an innovative and creative publishing "studio" that challenges conventional trade publishing standards. As President and Publisher of the yet-to-be-named entity, Miller will publish approximately 25 popular-priced books per year in multiple physical and digital formats including those as yet unspecified, with the aim to combine the best practices of trade publishing while taking full advantage of the internet for sales, marketing and distribution. Authors will be compensated through a profit sharing model as opposed to a traditional royalty, and books will be promoted utilizing on-line publicity, advertising and marketing.

"Bob Miller is one of the most talented publishers in the business, and we are thrilled have him join the HarperCollins team with the objective to re-define publishing for the 21st century," said Friedman. "Our industry needs digital and financial innovation to match its publishing expertise to thrive in an increasingly competitive world. Combining Bob's creativity with HarperCollins' sales acumen and digital leadership, this new entity will create a unique publishing platform to incubate a new publishing paradigm-- one that is unparalleled in the industry."

"HarperCollins is known for its innovation and experimentation, and I will live that philosophy. Our goal will be to effectively publish books that might not otherwise emerge in an increasingly 'big book' environment, an environment in which established authors are under enormous pressure to top their previous successes, while new authors are finding it harder and harder to be published at all," said Miller.

Miller joins HarperCollins from a 17 year career with ABC's Hyperion Books division which he founded in 1991 for the Walt Disney Company. Hyperion has published such bestsellers as Richard Carlson's "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff," Oprah Winfrey's "Make the Connection," Caroline Kennedy's "The Best-Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis," David Halberstam's "The Coldest Winter," Steve Martin's "Shopgirl," along with humor by George Carlin, Tim Allen and Chris Rock, and cookbooks by Jamie Oliver, Nigella Lawson and Mollie Katzen.

Prior to Disney Miller held editorial positions at Delacorte Press, Warner Books and St. Martin's Press.

About HarperCollins Publishers
HarperCollins, one of the largest English-language publishers in the world, is a subsidiary of News Corporation (NYSE: NWS, NWS.A; ASX: NWS, NWSLV). Headquartered in New York, HarperCollins has publishing groups around the world including the HarperCollins General Books Group, HarperCollins Children's Books Group, Zondervan, HarperCollins UK, HarperCollins Canada, HarperCollins Australia/New Zealand and HarperCollins India. HarperCollins is a broad-based publisher with strengths in literary and commercial fiction, business books, children's books, cookbooks, mystery, romance, reference, religious and spiritual books. With nearly 200 years of history HarperCollins has published some of the world's foremost authors and has won numerous awards including the Nobel Prize, the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, the Newbery Medal and the Caldecott. Consistently at the forefront of innovation and technological advancement, HarperCollins is the first publisher to digitize its content and create a global digital warehouse to protect the rights of its authors, meet consumer demand and generate additional business opportunities. You can visit HarperCollins Publishers on the Internet at http://www.harpercollins.com.



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Troy
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Posted on Saturday, April 05, 2008 - 11:05 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Urban_scribe what is your concern? This sounds to me a like a reasonable action to adapt to the swifty changing publishing environment.

"...based on a non-traditional business model" sounds like another way of saying replacing and old model that does not work for a new model that may work. And, "...challenges conventional trade publishing standards" is a high-falutin' way of saying "we gonna try something different".

I'm sure they are paying the man a boat load of money to implement a "new publishing paradigm"

Urban if you find out what that "new publishing paradigm" is please let me know...

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Steve_s
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Posted on Saturday, April 05, 2008 - 11:45 am:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Isn't Harper Collins the Rupert Murdoch-owned publishing house that advanced Clarence Thomas $1.5 mil for My Grandfather's Son?

I'm currently reading Jeffrey Toobin's "The Nine," about the Supreme Court.
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Urban_scribe
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Posted on Saturday, April 05, 2008 - 02:31 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Steve_s, HC is owned by News Corp, which is owned by Murdoch. So yes, HC is owned by Murdoch.

Troy, could be I'm reading too much into the release and the additional info that came my way within the past 24 hours, but you don' got me started. This is my interpretation based on the release and what I've so far learned about this proposed new imprint:

HarperCollins Publishers today announced it has signed publishing veteran Robert S. Miller to develop and launch a new global publishing program based on a non-traditional business model.

In other words, this new HC imprint will be POD in print format.

As President and Publisher of the yet-to-be-named entity, Miller will publish approximately 25 popular-priced books per year in multiple physical and digital formats including those as yet unspecified, with the aim to combine the best practices of trade publishing while taking full advantage of the internet for sales, marketing and distribution.

In other words, sales, marketing, and distribution for this new imprint will be Internet-focused. Statistically, Internet sales only account for roughly 10% of all book sales. Why isn't HC utilizing its resources to tap into the other 90% of the bookselling market - as HC does with all their other imprints?

"...this new entity will create a unique publishing platform to incubate a new publishing paradigm -- one that is unparalleled in the industry."

BULLSHIT! This is how all small presses, micro presses and self-pubbers start out because they don't have the resources and capital at their disposal that a conglomerate like HC has.

Furthermore, this new imprint's books are non-returnable, which makes them very bricks-and-mortar bookstore unfriendly. Physical bookstores aren't going to order books in significant quantities if they know they'll be stuck with whatever doesn't sell. In a trade publisher business model, an offset printrun and an industry standard returns policy have always been paramount first steps in getting authors' books stocked on bookstore shelves en masse.

The non-returns policy is what leads me to believe that the only print format will be POD. With a strictly POD print format, there's no need to worry about bookstore stock because bookstores can "special order" the book upon request. Therefore, there's no need for bookstores to stock POD books and, more important, there's no need for the publisher to have a returns policy and no need for the publisher to DO THEIR JOB and fight like hell to get their authors' books stocked on bookstore shelves. POD books are contrary to bookstore stock because they are printed ON DEMAND, which translates to less financial risk for the publisher - and less book sales for the author.

Also, authors who sign on with this new imprint will not receive advances or royalties. They'll receive a percentage of profits if, and ONLY IF, their book sells enough to turn a profit. Yet, HC is cutting these authors' books out of retail avenues that would generate the greatest potential for book sales. C'mon now!

Let's say HC spends $5,000 to publish each of these books. That 5K must be earned back before the book makes a profit. So in theory, it's possible that none of these books will ever earn a profit. I don't know yet what the author's cut of the profit-sharing will be, but 100% of zero is zero.

When I first read this release, I kept checking to make sure it actually came from HC. I couldn't, and still can't, believe HC would pull something so cheesy and so author unfriendly. They ought to call this new imprint "HC Lite" because it's nothing near the responsible trade publishing practices on which HarperCollins built their reputation. What bothers me most is many authors will flock to this new imprint simply because the HarperCollins name is attached, without realizing they're being jerked - royally. I can't wait to see the boilerplate contract for this imprint. All things considered, I wouldn't be surprised to see a rights-grab. That would really be the gravy on top of this limp biscuit.
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Emanuel
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Posted on Saturday, April 05, 2008 - 03:49 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

I predicted years ago on my now defunct blog that traditional publishers would start adding non-traditional divisions to their companies, so this announcement is no surprise at all. There is too much money involved for publishers to ignore the market when companies like iUniverse are making profits in the millions. No inventory means no overstock, no returns, no warehousing, and no freight costs. Traditional publishers will either buyout companies like iUniverse or run them out of business. I wonder if their POD books will have an asterisk like Kirkus "Discoveries."

In the future, bookstores as we know them will cease to exist. Consider the Expresso printers that will print the books as they are ordered in stores. No need for inventory. A bookstore can be operated without the need of square footage to stock books. Imagine a bookstore with no books in sight.

Got a signing? Customers will buy the books, the store will print them, and the author will sign them. This should make distributors very nervous (except for Ingram which had the foresight to start Lightning Source).

Amazon knows this, which is why they turned off the buy buttons for publishers that did not comply to their requirements of having Booksurge print their POD books. (Um, I thought Booksurge was a "publisher" not a "printer." Newsflash! ALL subsidy publishers are glorified printers.)

Authors will have to earn their money up front by selling the rights to their work instead of advance royalties. Yes, it will very tough for a no name brand author to make it in the book industry in the not-so-distant future, but what's a lowly writer to do?

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Urban_scribe
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Posted on Monday, April 07, 2008 - 06:49 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Statistically, Internet sales only account for roughly 10% of all book sales.

I quoted a 3-year old statistic that's stuck in my head. Internet sales currently account for roughly 20% of total books sales. Just wanted to correct that in the interest of fairness and accuracy.

**********

I agree, Emanuel, publishers must create new business models if they desire to keep up with rapidly growing technology. My problem with this proposed HC model is that it seems to combine the worst elements of trade publishing of both small and large houses, rather than the best elements of both small and large houses. The jury's still out, though. More and more info is coming my way regarding this new imprint. It's seems Bob is really shooting from the hip on this one, and this proposed imprint is a WIP.
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Emanuel
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Posted on Wednesday, April 09, 2008 - 08:27 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Hey UB,

May I ask what your source is regarding the Internet only accounting for 20% of sales? I've heard of the small percentages but never from a well-known publication.
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Urban_scribe
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Posted on Wednesday, April 09, 2008 - 09:11 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Nielsen Bookscan
http://bookscan.com
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Emanuel
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Posted on Thursday, April 10, 2008 - 07:30 pm:   Delete Post View Post/Check IP Print Post    Ban Poster IP (Moderator/Admin only)

Thanks.

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