New York Times article

I was reading this article The Greatest Mystery: Making a Best Seller (sign up for a free account to read) in the NYT and was so, so interested in the thought process that goes into making an author an advance and what numbers are crunched to try to determine an accurate idea of book sales. I liked that the article likened the publishing business to a casino and that there were so many books people thought wouldn't be hits (like Prep) that sold quite well. I guess everything depends on the market, the timing, the economy and millions of other factors that determine how a book will sell. Obviously, an author's job doesn't stop when "the end" is written. :) But we all knew that, didn't we?