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Originally Posted by Lemurion
MikeB1972 has already addressed the use of "stellar," but I would also like to draw your attention to the word manuscript, which has a generally accepted meaning of an as-yet unpublished book. You can't determine sales before a book's been published.
The entire passage talks about the decisions authors need to make before choosing between self-publishing and commercial publication. There are definitely books and authors for whom self-publishing is a better option, just as there are others for whom commercial publishing is a better option. Howey's figures don't back up his statements.
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If you read the full context around "stellar manuscript" you get to see what he's actually saying, instead of trying to read in things he's not. Immediately before the "stellar manuscript" bit he says:
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The third and final possibility is that the manuscript in question is great. [...] We all like to think our manuscript is one of these. And from this hubris comes a fatal decision not to self-publish.
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It seems obvious to me, but apparently I'm wrong, that what he's saying is that if you think your manuscript might be (all the things he says in that paragraph) then the figures suggest that you will still be better off self-publishing.
There's nothing there to suggest that self-publishing will make your manuscript all these things, there's nothing there to suggest that the figures offer any way to predict manuscripts that will be all these things. There is only the suggestion that if it does turn out to be a stellar performer then self-publishing still gives a better financial result. I am really not sure where and how you are reading anything else from the text - because in context the meaning seems pretty clear to me.