So why are you going into teaching? When I was in high school, I had two things that I hoped to do: One was to be a baseball player, and the other was to be a professor at a university. So it’s a late realization of a lifelong dream.

There’s some schadenfreude over your exit, coming amid a 5 percent decline in operating profit last year. Did parent company Bertelsmann push you out? That was not the motivation. The situation was clear when I returned after taking time off for double pneumonia. It was an opportunity to think about life and what you’re going to
do. We all get into routines, and the routines take charge. It took me out of my routine, and I rethought things.

Critics say you were a polarizing figure, choosing crass over class to drive profits. I was part of a process of making something that was a gentleman’s hobby into a real business. It’s tempting for journalists to portray someone as exclusively interested in profit over quality. That’s not what managing a book company is about. I cared deeply about balancing the need to produce profits and the need to develop great writing.

What book surprised you most? The Da Vinci Code. Nobody anticipated Random House would sell over 18 million copies in the U.S. It expanded our sense of what a breakout hit could be. Publishers live for that kind of rush.

So I take it that you’re not a pessimist about the industry’s stagnant sales. I think concerns about the book business dying are overdone. Storytelling—the generating of content for all kinds of media—is essential. Books play a key role.

What’s the hardest lesson you’ve learned? Not being overly distracted by short-term goals or the demands
of a corporate parent.

Who’s the next big franchise writer? Lee Child. He has the best character in literature since James Bond. And even people who claim to read only lugubrious literature enjoy a good thriller.

What’s your greatest disappointment? Not being around for Dan Brown’s next novel.