The Wall Street Journal is reporting that HarperCollins is launching a new imprint that will attempt to change long established practices in the publishing industry.  Hyperion Books President Robert Miller is leaving his post on April 15th to take over the as-yet-unnamed HarperCollins imprint, which will no longer sell books on a returnable basis, reversing a policy that has held sway in the bookstore market since the depression in the 1930s.  According to the WSJ between 30% and 40% of all consumer books sent to bookstores are returned to publishers, a practice that is extremely wasteful in both production and transportation costs for publishers. 

Attempts to end the returnable system have been made in the past, most notably by Harcourt, Brace Jovanovich in 1980, but HBJ quickly abandoned the policy when bookstores retaliated by cutting their orders.  Why does HarperCollins think it can get away with selling non-returnable now -- the new imprint plans to "focus much of its sales efforts on the Internet" where logistics make its non-returnable policies easier to implement. 

In addition to selling non-returnable the new imprint won't be paying for prime display space in the front of bookstores either, instead it will focus its marketing efforts on the Net.

HarperCollins plans to revolutionize the way in which books are acquired as well as the ways in which they are sold.  The new imprint will eschew advances to authors in favor of a beefed-up profit sharing plan for authors.  Advances to authors can have a catastrophic effect on a publisher's bottom line if, as all too often happens, a high profile book bombs.

Why attempt such radical surgery on traditional business practices?  Just about all phases of the publishing industry are under financial pressure and there is a real need to make the entire system more efficient.  It is not just publishers who are stressed -- booksellers are also under pressure -- witness Borders' decision to put itself up for sale (see "Credit Crunch Hits Borders" and "Tough Retail Environment for Booksellers").  But although it is obvious that what HarperCollins' new imprint wants to do could help publishers, it is difficult to see how these changes will help retailers, at least those of the brick-and-mortar variety.