Bob Miller

A few months have passed since Bob Miller left his longtime post atop Hyperion to start an experimental new imprint at HarperCollins designed to avoid big advances and bookstore returns—two of the most crippling structural issues facing contemporary publishing. So far, Mr. Miller has been operating quietly by himself, using his time to meet with literary agents and retailers, figuring out exactly how to realize his plan, and interviewing potential hires.  read more »

Publishers sure do love it when sick professors write books. First, Randy Pausch, the terminally ill computer scientist from Carnegie Mellon, sold his book The Last Lecture to Bob Miller, then the president of Hyperion, for a reported $6.7 million.  read more »

Literary agents at ICM are preparing for a visit from Bob Miller, the veteran publisher who left his longtime post atop Hyperion earlier this month to start an experimental publishing “studio” at HarperCollins. Mr. Miller has declared his intention to eschew industry conventions by paying authors small advances and offering them a more generous profit share of 50 percent.  read more »

The publishing world was stunned yesterday by two major resignations, as Rob Weisbach, founding president of Weinstein Books, and Bob Miller, founding president of Hyperion, both announced that they were vacating their positions to pursue other opportunities.

No word yet on what Mr. Weisbach's next move will be—he hasn't returned our calls, though a Weinstein spokesman told us he does have a job in publishing lined up—but Mr. Miller is heading to HarperCollins, where he will head a new, nontraditional publishing "studio" that will put out 25 short, low-priced hardcover titles per year. Mr. Miller will work with a small staff and report directly to company CEO Jane Friedman, with whom he has been friends for almost 30 years.  read more »