$500k is the New $1 Million

According to Crains, last week's auction for the story of Capt. Richard Phillips, the man who saved his crew from pirates and was rescued from his kidnappers by the Navy, "drew top bids of around $500,000--half the seven-figure advance it had been expected to fetch." A February auction resulted in no takers for a proposed Britney Spears memoir, and less infamous writers are facing ever-shrinking advances. Times are tough for writers.

Macmillan president Brian Napack comments, "We have to worry, when we come out of the recession, whether demand will reset to previous levels. So there's been a tremendous effort to streamline."