At the BookNet Canada Technology Forum conference in March, Workman Publishing group publisher Bob Miller delivered a lecture entitled, “Can This Business Be Saved? Experimenting With New Models for Trade Publishing.” In the video embedded above, you can watch the former publisher of HarperStudio ponder the lessons he learned at the recently shuttered imprint.

Miller opened the speech with a list of the Top Ten Ways You Can Calculate a Book Is Too Risky to Publish. On top of the list was a joke at the expense of books born on the Internet: “We don’t know what the book is yet, but the author has 12,000 friends on Facebook.” Blogger and HarperStudio author Choire Sicha disagreed in passionate essay on The Awl.

Here’s an excerpt: “Miller also claims that ‘small advances’ (that’s $100K and lower, and if you’re a fiction writer, you’re currently thinking “I’d kill someone for a $40K advance!) made the house unattractive to “track record” authors. This misses the point; a house like that is supposed to make writers, and can afford to gamble on books, not just buy the cache of authors outright as is done in the wrecked publishing star system. Bob totally misunderstands what he was doing, and how and why he was doing it, it sounds like?”

As dramatic staffing news rocked HarperStudio today, staffers opened an online dialogue with readers about the future of the HarperCollins imprint.

HarperStudio publisher Bob Miller is leaving to serve as Group Publisher at Workman Publishing and HarperCollins’ and U.S. publisher Michael Morrison will lead HarperStudio when Miller departs in May. HarperStudio created a Formspring.me page to field questions from readers. One person asked the looming question: “Will you be canceling contracts or will all books that have been signed up be published?”

This answer was posted: “No contracts canceled. Books that are on the schedule through Fall 2010 will be HarperStudio titles — and after that we’re going to put our heads together and figure out what where when how for the rest. Maybe HarperStudio 2.0. Maybe something different. I have no idea, but I feel like the world is our oyster. I LOVE our authors (all of them) and can’t wait to work on their books — and the mojo goes where we go. To be continued, for sure.”

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Today HarperCollins CEO Brian Murray announced that Michael Morrison–the company’s president and publisher of U.S. General Books and Canada–will lead HarperStudio after the departure of current publisher Bob Miller in May.

Murray had this statement: “At a time of great change in publishing, Bob built HarperStudio into a new innovative publishing imprint based on profit shares with authors and non returnable book sales with retailers. It was recently named one of the most innovative companies by Fast Company magazine … I thank Bob for his contributions to HarperCollins and ask you to join me in wishing Bob much success in his new role.”

As we reported earlier, Miller will head to Workman Publishing as Group Publisher–supervising Workman, Algonquin, and Artisan imprints alongside Workman CEO Peter Workman.

The entire memo is embedded after the jump.

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On May 3, HarperStudio publisher Bob Miller will head to Workman Publishing as Group Publisher–supervising Workman, Algonquin, and Artisan imprints alongside Workman CEO Peter Workman.

Most recently, Miller founded HarperStudio, signing seventy authors and testing new models for advances and royalties. In 1990, he founded Hyperion at the Walt Disney Company. In 2008, we interviewed Miller about book returns and the future of publishing.

Miller had this statement: “I am very proud of what we have accomplished at HarperStudio, and I am sorry to leave this exciting venture behind, but the opportunity to play such a significant role at Workman Publishing is impossible to resist. I have admired Peter Workman and his company from afar throughout my career; now I look forward to working closely with him as Workman Publishing enters its fifth decade as one of our country’s most innovative and successful independent publishers.”

The entire press release is embedded after the jump.

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It was Unofficial Piracy Week here at GalleyCat headquarters last week, as four different writers tackled the question of book piracy.

First up, novelist Daniel Alarcón visited the Morning Media Menu to talk about book piracy in Peru. Here’s a brief excerpt from his upcoming Granta article on the topic: “Then there are the pirates themselves, informal book manufacturers whose overworked, antique presses are hidden in nondescript houses in slums all over the city. The larger of these operations can crank out some 40,000 volumes a week, and because of their superior distribution, the pirates can sell three times as many copies of a book as the authorized publishers.”

Next, our digitally obsessed sibling eBookNewser looked at a recent piracy survey: “According to the report, eBook piracy represents as much as $2.75 billion in losses to the publishing industry. Attributor’s report indicates that 10,000 copies of every book published are pirated, and that piracy represents 10% of US book sales. Now, don’t those numbers seem a little high?”

Magellan Media’s Brian O’Leary urged readers not to reject the Attributor report without studying the data: “In presenting the results of our work, I’ve said, repeatedly, that we really don’t know the impact of file sharing on paid content sales. The Attributor study won’t solve that, but it is data. It deserves an airing.”

Finally, HarperStudio publisher Bob Miller (pictured) weighed in on the piracy report: “We need to protect our author’s copyrights, and make sure that we don’t get Napstered by massive illegal online distribution. But small quantities of people reading our books for free may not be harmful, and may actually promote literacy, and the joy of reading … and the business we’re so worried about protecting.”

That’s four different opinions–what do you think?

Over the weekend, HarperStudio publisher Bob Miller made waves with his predictions for the future of publishing.

Here’s one surprising quote: “The large publishing houses will continue to reduce overhead as profits shrink in the years ahead. Counter trend: Publishers will be looking for mergers and acquisitions to compensate for those shrinking profits. The Big Six could be the Big Three within five years … These companies will continue to focus more resources on fewer titles, using their strengths as large-scale marketers and distributors to publish brand-names. Title count at the largest houses could drop by as much as fifty percent over the next five years.”

Miller founded the Hyperion imprint for Disney, and ran it for 17 years. In 2008 he left that publisher to start HarperStudio, an imprint making some innovative adjustments to the traditional publishing model. One year ago, we interviewed Miller about his thoughts on returnable books.

Only a few months after the Perseus/Avalon reorganizion closed down Carroll & Graf and Thunder’s Mouth – sending former C&G editor Will Balliett to Da Capo as executive director – he’s now gone and left for Hyperion, where PW Daily reports he will take the reins as editorial director. Will Schwalbe, senior v-p and editor-in-chief of Hyperion, made the announcement today, calling Balliett “one of the most creative and admired figures in publishing.” Schwalbe said Balliett will acquire and edit books for Hyperion and manage the editorial process, beginning August 8.

“Given my own history in publishing, the dynamic and enormously talented company being led by Bob Miller, Ellen Archer and Will Schwalbe just felt like a perfect home for me,” said Balliett. “There’s great passion and chemistry, with a track record to match, and I couldn’t be more excited about what we’re going to be doing together.”

Though the news broke a few months back, yesterday HarperCollins made the news official: they will be distributing books published by Hyperion Books and Disney Book Group, taking over from the former Time Warner Book Group (now, of course, Hachette Book Group.) All back office functions including customer service, warehousing, billing and credit will be performed by HarperCollins. The company has hired Mary Beth Thomas, VP, Director of Client Services, to oversee the day-to-day relationship for Hyperion and Disney Book Group.

“We feel that Hyperion and Disney Book Group are an excellent fit with HarperCollins,” said Jane Friedman, President and CEO of HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide. “This distribution agreement between two leading publishing companies furthers our current growth strategy. Bob Miller [President of Hyperion] and Jeanne Mosure [Senior Vice President, Disney Publishing Worldwide] are two outstanding professionals who have built admirable publishing organizations.”