BIG ADVANCES FOR DEBUT NOVELS

Not so long ago, a first-time novelist would pray that someday, someone might find his or her work worthy enough to publish. ''You work in a video store, you write a novel in your spare time; it's the great American dream,'' says Doubleday editorial director Deb Futter. Well, not quite. These days, the dream doesn't have to end with mere visions of a bound manuscript but with a lottery-size, six-figure advance. Though such a payoff may not be commonplace, it's hardly unheard-of anymore. Nicholas Evans earned $3.15 million for his debut, The Horse Whisperer, to be published by Dell (and that's not including the $3 million that Disney plunked down for the movie rights). David Baldacci got $2 million from Warner Books for The Executive Power. HarperCollins paid $1 million for David Ramus' Thief of Light. And Bantam shelled out six figures for S.R. Gannon's A Song for the Asking, as did Villard for Irving Benig's thriller The Messiah Stones. Why are unknowns scoring paychecks that approach those of Michael Crichton and Danielle Steel? ''A good hope is better than a bad holding,'' ICM agent Amanda ''Binky'' Urban says, referring to a writer whose previous works haven't sold. Futter agrees that a new face can be easier to market: ''With an unknown, it's all fresh, clean slate, no baggage.'' And marketing is, after all, at the heart of the numbers. ''Publishers shell out a lot of money to create instant attention for a book,'' says Random House editor Jonathan Karp, who compares the process to a ''Cinderella story.'' William Morrow's Claire Wachtel, who paid $100,000 for Diane Whetstone's freshman effort, Tumbling, says muscle-flexing also plays a part. ''Publishers like to show agents they have money, so they'll get good properties.'' It seems the literary world has learned an important lesson from its Hollywood cousins: Money speaks volumes.