A) not sure what dawkins has to do with anything.
B) i thought there's value in providing advances / sales numbers, etc. As a writer I can say there's nothing like that out there. It helps to understand the reality of the publishing business.
It seems that books are like startups- unless you hit a huge home run, you really shouldn't be doing it for the money.
Simple, he hates religion but spends a lot of time on it.