To most of us, the business of publishing is an intriguing mystery. Do famous authors just walk into a publisher’s office, plunk down the bare outline of their latest masterwork, and smile indolently as the fawning publisher passes them a check for millions?

To find out, I’ve investigated author advances for some well-known titles. Here’s the advance that each title earned for its author:

£5: Paradise Lost (John Milton)
£1500: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (J. K. Rowling)
$2,500: Carrie (Stephen King)
$3,939: The Great Gatsby (F. Scott Fitzgerald)
$10,000: Day of the Jackal (Frederick Forsyth)
$100,000: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius (Dave Eggers)
$100,000: The Time Traveler’s Wife (Audrey Niffenegger)
$750,000: Twilight (Stephenie Meyers)
$1.5 million: Bright Shiny Morning (James Frey)
$2 million: Official Book Club Selection (Kathy Griffin)
$3 million: as yet untitled (from NY Times: “the new book is an allegory — this time about the Holocaust — involving animals.”) (Yann Martel)
$5 million: Her Fearful Symmetry (Audrey Niffenegger)
$8 million: Thirteen Moons (Charles Frazier)
$15 million: My Life (Bill Clinton)

Do these numbers surprise you? Know of any other amazing/ horrifying author advance statistics? Comment below!

–Chip