The Observer's Sara Nelson on why the publishing industry keeps advance amounts and sales figures under wraps: "Nobody talks about publishing numbers because they are so unbelievably low...When told, for example, that last year s hit novel, Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything Is Illuminated, sold about 100,000 copies in hardcover, one editor of a huge-circulation monthly gasped and said, 'If I only sold 100,000 magazines, I'd get fired.'"
Publishers, open your books! We know the numbers lie! [Observer]