In case you missed the Gawker item this morning about the editor who warns of shrinking book advances, it’s worth a quick look. Nothing you haven’t heard before, as Gawker suggests said anonymous source is just “damn sick of paying a quarter of a million bucks for a novel that has a 1 in 800 chance of earning out, and he’s paring back his spending, probably at the strong request of his sudoku-monetizing bosses.” But should aspiring authors serious brace themselves for pared-back offers? Well, that’s assuming that very many authors were getting $250,000 to begin with…