538 = 700,000

FiveThirtyEight.com may be one of the few truly innovative blogs out there. Rather than simply repackaging other people's work and commenting on it, creator Nate Silver took polling information and refined it in such a way that it became more valuable and accurate than what he started with.

Now Nate, who once had plenty of time to do our show, has signed a $700,000 deal to write two books for Penguin.

Penguin also inked a deal with another guest and favorite of mine, the New Yorker's Ryan Lizza, for a book on the Obama presidency.