Welcome to the P&L: a deep dive into the document editors must create in order to offer on your book, determine your advance, and convince their colleagues that you're a good bet
Q and A edition: please know that any grump you detect in my replies to your perfectly valid and excellent questions has been triggered not by you but by [gestures out the window].
The most important thing to keep in mind as you navigate the publishing industry is that you're going to die and are in fact sweeping closer to the moment of your death with every passing nanosecond