A BRIEF HISTORY OF MILLER TRADE BOOK MARKETING

In 1980 inveterate scribbler and bookstore browser Bruce Joshua Miller left Academy Chicago Publishers (an independent publishing house founded by his parents Jordan and Anita Miller) where he had labored since 1976, and began work as a publishers' representative. He traveled thirteen Midwestern states in behalf of Academy Chicago, And/Or Press, Caedmon Records,  The Crossing Press, Dustbooks, Persea Books, Prometheus Books, The Subterranean Company (then the exclusive distributors of  City Lights Publishing) and other independent presses. From Lincoln, NE to Cleveland, OH and from Fargo, ND to Lexington, KY he worked to convince buyers at independent bookstores, chains, and wholesalers that the authors he represented deserved a place on their shelves. Miller's territory included (and still does today) Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, Wisconsin, and North and South Dakota.

His younger brother, Eric Lincoln Miller, joined him as a partner in 1985 and together founded Miller Trade Book Marketing. Known variously as "The Miller Brothers, Those Miller Boys, or The Book Brothers," their partnership lasted 26 years. In 2011 the brothers went their separate ways, and Bruce continued at Miller Trade Book Marketing. University of Georgia Press was the first university press to hire them, helping the Millers to establish a reputation for selling trade and scholarly books.

In 2013 Bruce Miller received Publishers' Weekly's "Sales Rep of the Year Award," for his part in a successful, social media-driven campaign (in partnership with the author, editor and professor Ned Stuckey-French) to prevent the shutdown of the University of Missouri Press. The four-month long cooperative effort to save the press and to reinstate Clair Willcox as Editor-in-Chief brought together a committed  group of authors, students and faculty generating national press coverage and scores of articles by Columbia Daily Tribune reporter Janese Silvey.

In the digital age when Amazon, Google and other tech behemoths attempt to exert total control over access to literature, independent bookstores are more important than ever. The rights of publishers and authors reside with brick-and-mortar bookstores, especially the Indies that "hand-sell" books, bringing public attention to new authors. Miller vigorously promotes the work of authors, known and unknown, to his bookstore friends. "University presses are the unacknowledged legislators of the publishing world," Miller says, "and I am proud to be a conduit for the work of so many dedicated authors, helping them to find an audience."

Bruce Joshua Miller's blog can be found at: brucejquiller.wordpress.com/