If you really want to get published...

• The Guardian reports on Harper-Collins' new publishing imprint.

Sounds iffy, but everything publishing-related is these days.

Now Robert S Miller, the longtime and energetic founder-president of Hyperion, is to head up a new imprint for HarperCollins, which will specialise in short, "popular-priced" books from authors prepared to accept lower advances, or none at all. He is also planning to shift the burden of risk towards the bookseller by offering titles on a no-returns basis.

"Our goal will be effectively to publish books that might not otherwise emerge in an increasingly 'big book' environment, an environment in which established authors are under enormous pressure to top their previous successes, while new authors are finding it harder and harder to be published at all," Miller said in a statement issued yesterday by HarperCollins.