Cold-Contacted by Publisher

I got an email today from the publisher that handles the book series put out by one of the blogs I write and edit for. No one at the blog had mentioned anything about it to me, so it was completely out of the blue. The publisher is a VERY big-name non-fiction/trade publisher (as in, think of the most popular how-to series out there; they published it).

One of the associate publishers wants to have a phone conversation on Monday regarding the possibility of me writing for them. I have no clue what they have in mind, whether this is just a "get to know you, come up with an idea, send us a proposal" conversation or this is a "here's the book we'd like you to write, do we send the contract to you or do you have an agent" type of conversation. I'm assuming it probably falls somewhere in between.

I have a ton of questions. I got in touch with my boss at the blog and he basically told me of one other book that's currently being written in the series and pointed me to the one that's already been published and that's it. He didn't have a clue what the associate publisher had in mind.

So, on to my questions. If anyone can answer any or all of these I will be eternally grateful!

1. What usually happens on these phone conversations?

2. Is it wrong to assume that if they're calling me (in fact, calling me international long distance) they're probably pretty sure they want me to write something for them?

3. Do publishers often contact you with a book idea in mind or do they want some ideas from you? I've jotted down a couple of rough ideas just to be on the safe side, but I'm not sure if that's going to be expected or not.

4. Is it possible that they'll be ready to offer me a contract right away? Or is it more likely they'll just want a proposal, etc.?

5. What are advances like for non-fiction trade books? Again, this is one of the largest nonfiction publishers in the world, and from what I can tell they're not having many of the financial difficulties others are having.

6. Should I contact an agent if I'm offered a contract? I'm thinking I should have someone to look it over to make sure everything is standard and that I'm getting the best deal possible. When would I mention to the publisher that I wanted to get an agent to negotiate things or look things over?

Definitely won't be quitting the day job (which, incidentally, is writing)! I know this came about because the publisher is working directly with a site that I'm editorial manager for, but I still have no clue exactly what they have in mind.

Thanks especially for the specific advance figures. The main thing is that I'm going to have to cut back on certain projects if I take on another nonfiction book (I self-pubbed a related nonfiction book last year, so I have an idea of the workload involved between writing and revisions), and I need an advance that will cover that loss of income for the few months I'm working on the book. It's not a huge amount (only about a quarter of my regular income, and something I can easily pick back up on when the book is done), but at least the upper numbers in the range you gave would cover it. I'm hoping where this is a very large publisher and a somewhat-established series with some pretty big names writing for it, the advance will fall in the upper reaches of that.

Thanks, Caroline! I've been writing online for more than three years now and have slowly built up my profile and expertise. I'm just glad it's paying off. And hopefully now instead of telling friends and family I blog for a living (seems like half of them don't even know what a blog is) I'll actually be able to say I wrote a book published by a big-name publisher. Keeping my fingers crossed and hoping this all works out.

Update

Just had a phone conversation and it was more of a "getting to know you" kind of talk than anything else. They're going to send ideas my way, I'll send ideas their way, and hopefully we can find something that works for both of us. They did mention working on other books, though, writing individual chapters or what not. So that's pretty cool. I plan on sending a follow up email with a few ideas and everything tomorrow, so hopefully something will come of it.