The right price the first time

The way you price expensive transactions is going to train your partners and customers in how to behave.

When selling a book to a major publisher, it's common for the publisher to offer an advance against royalties. In fact, the advance is the most significant tool that publishers use to get a coveted author to pick one house over another--royalties and most everything else are fixed.

It turns out that if an agent offers a hot book to multiple publishers at the same time, the advance offered go...