Who

Erstwhile Hyperion president Bob Miller is now president and publisher of HarperStudio, a HarperCollins division with a non-traditional business model.

Backstory

Philadelphia-born Miller attended Boston University and in 1978 entered the publishing industry on the ground floor as an editorial assistant at St. Martin's Press. He went on to hold editing positions at Warner Books—where he published The Andy Warhol Diaries—Dell Publishing, and Delacorte Press. In 1990, he joined brand new Disney-owned publishing company Hyperion; ten years later, he was named president of the imprint by Disney's Bob Iger and oversaw fiction and non-fiction across imprints including Miramax, ABC Daytime, ESPN Books, Hyperion East, and VOICE. In April '08 Miller surprised the publishing world by leaving Hyperion to head up a new HarperCollins imprint. Miller, who is also currently chairman of the Association of American Publishers, will report directly to HarperCollins CEO Brian Murray.

Of note

Despite having used traditional publishing to create some mega-successes at Hyperion like Mitch Albom's relentlessly bestselling The Five People You Meet in Heaven and 2006's "It" book/phrase popularizer The Long Tail, Miller is scrapping the industry's time-honored methods at HarperStudio. Authors will be paid via profit sharing rather than big advances and royalties, books will no longer be given to retailers on a sale or return basis, and marketing, advertising and publicity will all take place online. The planned 25 titles a year will be "popular-priced"—we assume that means no $27.99 hardbacks—short in length, in a range of physical and digital formats, and by both new and established authors. "Our goal," Miller says, "will be to effectively publish books that might not otherwise emerge in an increasingly 'big book' environment."

Drama

Miller took some heat in September 2006 when word got out that Court TV personality Nancy Grace had plagiarized a New York Times article in her Hyperion-published book Objection! Miller quickly distanced Hyperion from the ensuing brouhaha, pointing out that any lawsuit she might face over her text-swiping was her problem, not the company's.

Personal

Miller and his wife Marta live with their three kids in New Jersey.