Someone mention Scalzi? Here's something he wrote on the book deal; of course, from a non tie-in perspective and a little tongue in cheek: http://whatever.scalzi.com/2004/09/08/the-real-world-book-deal-descriptions/ And some hard numbers on the "Shitty Deal": http://www.scalzi.com/whatever/002869.html There's also other publishing perspectives from the author's view from the gallery as well on his blog.
Middyseafort, thanks for the link; that's good stuff! Informative with wit; makes for good reading. AmySisson, do you have a link to the Hines blog that you mentioned?