Curtis Sittenfeld's first novel, Prep, received a mention yesterday in the Sunday New York Times Business section, in "The Greatest Mystery: Making a Best Seller," an article about the difficulty of predicting which books will sell. The story of Prep's publication , described in the article as a "surprise bestseller" using Curtis Sittenfeld's Prep as an example of somebody doing something right. risk, unpredictability Ms. Sittenfeld says she is reminded of something she heard from an editor: “People think publishing is a business, but it’s a casino.” “Prep” proceeded to confound all expectations by making the New York Times best-seller list a month after publication She contacted nearly two dozen high-ranking editors at major publishers, expecting every one to make offers for her client’s coming-of-age story set at a boarding school. “Nobody in publishing is smart enough to know which of the big books will be fiascos, which of the little books will be successes and which in the middle might go up or down,” Mr. Thomas says.