I can't be the only one who wonders how on earth some publishing houses are able to dole out such gigantic advances. But in Bantam Dell's case, considering they managed to elegantly can one longtime publicist and shuffle others upward and onward, maybe all that moving around was due to the fact that they really, really, really wanted to free up some money in order to win the Warren Buffett Sweepstakes -- for a book he's not even writing all by himself:

Following a heated auction, the Bantam Dell Publishing Group has acquired the U.S. print rights to an Alice Schroeder/Warren Buffett book collaboration, tentatively titled The Snowball: How Warren Buffett Collected Friends, Wisdom and Wealth. It is the first book on which Buffett, after years of being wooed by publishers and editors, has agreed to cooperate. Agent David Black, who conducted the auction, told The Book Standard, though, "I just want to stress [that] it's her book," referring to author Schroeder, a former Morgan Stanley insurance analyst. The publisher, in a release issued tonight, said the book "will be the result of the thousands of hours Schroeder has spent with Buffett, talking about his life and career, as well as her unprecedented access to his files, friends and associates."

Oh, and the grand total amount? If reports are to be believed, a smokin' hot 7 million dollars. The book won't be out till 2008, by which time Bantam Dell might have figured out how to free up even more money to pay out the advance. Whoo-ee.