Now, anybody who's ever tried to get a novel published is sure to look scornfully upon yesterday's strip. A debut novel, submitted without an agent, gets a $25,000 offer just like that? Go on, pull the other one, it's got a bell at the end. But what makes this scenario truly unbelievable is that he only finished the first draft last month, then managed to rescue it from a fire that broke out in his home at that very moment . . .

Okay, no one ever tell Galleycat about: the episodes of Sex and the City where Carrie's newspaper editor somehow brokers her book deal, Emily's Reasons Why Not, Stranger than Fiction, Men in Trees, A Girl's Guide To Hunting and Fishing, Wonder Boys . . . ok, or any fictional depiction of the way publishing works, ever.

This Is Not The Way The World Works [Galleycat]