Boy, when that paradigm shifts, it just swallows up Lois Lane, eh? Lois Lane here is everyone in the world o'books except for the publisher, who is clearly Lex Luthor. So, who gets to be Superman?

@In Other News...: Cory Doctorow.

Hey guess what? You can't get your really good, slightly out of the mainstream book published. You know why? Because Mitch Albom just got ten billion dollars for his latest drivel and the publisher can't afford to take a chance on you. Is this the ideal solution? I don't know, but I am certain that Bob Miller is not out to screw writers.

This isn't going to work.

Side note. This gentleman has gone from working for the second most evil media conglomerate to working the mostest evil media conglomerate. I guess moving up the ladder that way will allow hime to buy more wallpaper for his room in Hell.

Before everyone gets their panties in a twist, Smithhimself will edit and deliver you the "nut" para from the NYT article:

"She pointed to some of the titles that Mr. Miller had published while at Hyperion as models, including "The Five People You Meet in Heaven" by Mitch Albom and "The Best-Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis."

The 50% Hyperion deal could be profitable for a writer like Albon, but a bit of a sweat for any book store as they watch unsold copies of "The Five People You Meet In Hell" fade in the sunlight and gather dust.

Conclusion 1#: Most best-selling authors will never agree to this deal (they don't have to).

Conclusion 2#: They'll publish a high amount of crap.

I don't think this is so, so awful for all writers, as long as you have another means of making a living. This way you will never have to worry your book will fail by not selling out its advance. But it seems like those aren't the kinds of authors they're talking about.

@ljnd2: Cory Doctrow has massive, free publicity through BoingBoing... I really hate when that crew touts free eBooks and bullshit like that as the next big thing. Yeah it works for pseudo-celebrities, but not for debut authors. No advance will kill off all but the assholes who hog the writer retreats and MFA thesis...

Booksellers overorder, and publishing houses are essentially blackmailed into filling those orders, whether they like it or not. And then the booksellers, once they realize they've overordered, just send the unsold, unwanted books back to the publishers, usually with a Post-it attached that says "Ha ha. Eat shit and these books."

I don't know who invented this system, but he was an asswipe.

My heart goes out to the writers, but it sure doesn't go out to fucking Barnes and Noble.

Returns were created during the Depression to keep bookstores alive. With a no return policy, the publisher better commit to a big PR budget or they will never see the shelves.

I love it how corporations just absolutely have to elbow their way into fucking everything, ruin it once their in the door (see: movies, coffee shops, Vegas, etc), and then, if and when it no longer turns a profit, throw their hands up and declare the thing dead. Books were around long before MBA jerkoffs couldn't figure out how to sell them, and they will be around long after those MBA's are gone.

Stephen King's been publishing at Scribner under an arrangement like the one proposed here for years and has done well enough under it to keep at it. Bob Miller is well-liked, well-respected, and pretty damn smart(*) if anyone is capable of finding enough other authors of sufficient profile to make this work, it's him.

I don't see this as hurting struggling writers at all as this venture is largely going to have nothing to do with them--except perhaps free up advance budgets at other imprints to buy their work.

This is probably the most innovative thing book publishing has come up with on its own and tried since, seriously, since the creation of the mass market paperback format. If it works, it's going to be a great thing for the whole industry.

*I am not Bob Miller. I am not related to Bob Miller. I have never reported within four supervisors of Bob Miller. Honest.

@Randall Tex Cobb:

...In between paying the bookstores, as they do now, for the privilege of having their books displayed where people can find them, you mean?

@Vlad the Impala: Exactly. And these types of books are not really "written" per se. More like "packaged." Writers won't really be involved.

But Penguin tried this a few years ago with an imprint whose name escapes me and which went defunct after 4-5 publishing seasons, anyway.

the writers I know don't make money to live from book sales; they need to supplement income by teaching or free lance journalism. It might just make things easier for the writers who aren't hyped but have quality books.

You may not make a living from your book advance but a chunk of money upfront can help you get the free time you need to actually get to sit down and write. I know that it has helped people with a down payment for a apt, so they do not have to deal with escalating rent. It freed others from having to take on freelance work on top of their day jobs. It means the difference between writing and not writing. (I write this from the position of never having had an advance, and still renting, and still doing freelance work.)

The thing about digital content is that no one wants to pay for it. I don't see how it will work. Also, publishers are notoriously vague about actual sales figures, especially when they are paying out royalties. An advance is a guarantee that you get some money, and that the company is committing itself to doing some marketing. With this new model, you'd be better off publishing yourself.

@4Cats: Plus there is no such thing as a "free" ebook. The digital files you use to make an ebook are different from the digital files you use to make a physical book. All books cost money to publish, in any format. It's just that if you distribute a ton of ebooks, the cost is amortized down to...well, it depends on how many ebooks you distribute. Orders for Kindle titles are now in the HUNDREDS!

I like this idea a couple of reasons. 1) They are going to get many writers who have had some success but don't get big advances: a ready made list. 2) The lotto idea of a 50% royalty (If I had this deal on a book I worked on with two other writers we would all be really rich today cause the thing sold 500,000 copies on a $11,000 advance and a 9% trade paperback royalty rate) makes sense with a follow up book even years later if the original publisher didn't want to play. 3) New writers with some buzz would be in the game where they would not be in a world of no mid-list books. 4) Booksellers would be point of sale masters or they would fail. No laziness allowed: no stroking the cat and making tea. 5) In a world destined to be like Fahrenheit 451 where only a select few actually read books on paper (which is the only confortable way to read anyway) it will be cultish to read "real" books. A whole new market!

So he's effectively going to run a publishing imprint without a backlist catalog.

If this were adopted industry wide it would, of course, be a shitty move for consumers who have any interest in bookstores carrying a variety of interesting books, because without returns your average bookstore is going to be forced to look exactly the same as an airport shop or the book rack at your local Rite Aid.