In the meantime, whoever is passing along the information that the dollar PA gives for a contract is necessary to seal the contract, that isn't accurate. That dollar constitutes an advance on sales. Therefore, that dollar isn't from the publisher, it's from a future customer. Publishers pay advances based upon how many sales they expect to make. To entice you to sell your book to them, they offer an advance out of their own pockets at their own risk based on an analysis of the market. If your book doesn't sell enough to earn out the advance, then they've lost money. If it does earn out, then did they actually pay anything to the author? No. Their customers paid the author.
That would be me, and unless Jaws or somebody with specific knowledge otherwise can contradict me, it is my understanding that consideration is still required for a contract to be binding. Consideration is anything of value given to the other party in a contract. It could be one American dollar in exchange for a manuscript. It could be a can of Coke for ten acres of beachfront property. The values don't matter--only that something with some value exchanges hands on either side.
Your argument that the customer is providing that dollar is just plain incorrect, Dave. The return address doesn't come from a customer, the dollar didn't come out of a customer's bank account or pocket, and no customer has paid money for it yet.
Compare other examples. If a city contracts a general contractor to build a toll booth, and gives him a $1,000 deposit to buy equipment, who paid the contractor? The city, or the drivers passing through the toll booth? Eventually, the drivers will repay the city, but the money still came from the city. It doesn't matter how the contract signer expects to be repaid for his investment, or even if he expects to be repaid at all. It's completely irrelevant.
Heck, in at least 1,100 cases, no customers bought any books. Does that make those 1,100 contracts invalid? No--the authors still have their dollar.
Here, check out wikipedia's entry on consideration in American law. It breaks it down more clearly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consideration_under_American_law
