"Best Seller" is a short story

Short story

A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

 by the British comic writer P. G. Wodehouse. A part of the Mr. Mulliner series, the story was first published in Cosmopolitan

Cosmopolitan (magazine)

Cosmopolitan is an international magazine for women. It was first published in 1886 in the United States as a family magazine, was later transformed into a literary magazine and eventually became a women's magazine in the late 1960s...

in June 1930. It was included as a Mr. Mulliner story in the book Mulliner Nights

Mulliner Nights

Mulliner Nights is a collection of short stories by P. G. Wodehouse. First published in the United Kingdom on 17 January 1933 by Herbert Jenkins, and in the United States on 15 February 1933 by Doubleday, Doran, it is the third collection featuring Mr Mulliner, who narrates all nine stories...

.

Overview

Egbert Mulliner, a literary critic, falls in love with Evangeline Pembury while recovering from an overdose of interviewing female novelists. After ensuring that she doesn't secretly write novels or short stories, he confesses his love to her and she reciprocates. Love, however, makes Evangeline write a romantic novel 'Parted Ways' which ends up becoming a best seller. A literary agent arrives, Egbert finds himself cut off from his love, and the couple 'part ways'. A change comes over Egbert and, whenever a female novelist has to be interviewed, Egbert boldly goes. Thus, he finds himself interviewing Evangeline for an article for his paper. Evangeline breaks down, confesses that she has committed to writing three novels and several short stories but cannot write another word, and Egbert steps into the breach with novels that he had written when but a struggling young man.