My advice to anyone would be to queue up and avail yourself of Howard’s expertise and insight.Īnonymous, author of Becoming Duchess Goldblatt I was stunned and gratified by how carefully Howard read my work, how thoughtful and insightful his comments were, and how he was able to point out my blind spots with tact and graciousness. Lloyd Shepherd, author of The English MonsterĪs a confident writer and editor with many years of experience myself, I sent Howard Mittelmark an early draft of my manuscript, unsure of how he might advise me. Working with him has been an absolute joy – he’s got a first-class eye for character and plot, and if it ain’t working, he will tell you it ain’t, why it ain’t, and how it might. I made so many changes that I went to him again. Howard pointed me in the right direction, with a map of clear and thoughtful observations. I had a first draft, but it was only half a story with some half-decent characters and a lot of stuff that just didn’t work. I was, frankly, stuck with my new work-in-progress. Lisa Unger, New York Times and international bestselling author With intelligence and grace, Howard led me to better, stronger versions of the stories I submitted. Howard Mittelmark is that kind of editor. A great editor does so with kindness, humor, respect and the faith that the project, with patience and careful attention, will become what it needs to be. He observes and notes, questions, teases, and nudges, then maybe nudges again. I’ve also helped many authors who have published their books independently.Ī good editor leads a writer to the best version of her manuscript. I’ve worked on books for most of the major publishers in New York, including Viking, Penguin, HarperCollins, Scholastic, Simon & Schuster, and Random House (combine as necessary to accommodate mergers or other developments), as well as smaller, independent houses, like Kensington and Walker, and Amazon imprints, like Thomas & Mercer, Montlake, and 47North. More recently, my writing has been on The Awl, Splitsider, Vulture, and cnn.com.

I’ve also published articles and essays in The New York Times, The Hollywood Reporter, The San Francisco Chronicle, The International Herald Tribune, The Village Voice, Mystery Scene, Writer’s Digest, and The New York Review of Science Fiction, as well as various business and art magazines.

I’ve reviewed books for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and Kirkus Reviews. I’m the author of the novel Written Out and the bestselling writing guide How Not to Write a Novel, as well as other titles, which you can see here.

Read This Next by Howard Mittelmark