The Observer reports that small press publishers are taking issue with the way Bob Miller's new HarperCollins project has been characterized as "innovative." Miller acknowledged that small presses have been experimenting with profit-sharing with authors, digital distribution, and non-returnable sales to booksellers for years, but says that his venture's innovativeness lies in its synthesis of these elements. Melville House publisher Dennis Johnson doesn't think the profit-sharing aspect of Miller's plan will work in a commercial context: He says that big-time authors' agents typically respond to advance-free offers by telling putative publishers to "drop dead." But PublicAffairs founder Peter Osnos is a dissenting indie voice. He points out in his weekly column that at least one aspect of Miller's venture has promise: The potential of the e-book market is proven, and growing, he says, based on the early success of PublicAffairs's publication of George Soros's 'The New Paradigm of Financial Markets,' which Soros delivered on March 24 and which became available as an e-book ten days later. The physical book, which will become available on May 19, is now #110 on Amazon based on preorders, and the e-book is a Kindle bestseller.