About
I’m the author of the novel Age of Consent, and co-author, with Sandra Newman, of UK-bestseller How Not To Write A Novel: 200 Mistakes To Avoid At All Costs If You Ever Want To Get Published. Our most recent collaboration, Read This Next, was published in the US by HarperCollins and in the UK by Penguin.
I’ve reviewed books for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, and Kirkus Reviews. I’ve also published articles and essays in 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 worked for most of the major publishers in New York, including Viking Penguin, HarperCollins, Scholastic, Simon & Schuster, and Random House, as well as smaller houses, such as Kensington and Walker. As a freelance editor and collaborator, I’ve worked on dozens of novels and memoirs, two of which were New York Times bestsellers.
Howard Mittelmark is more than an editor, or even a coach. He’s a book midwife — guiding, cajoling, reacting, and providing thoughtful companionship along the way. He improved both my written work and my skills as a writer immeasurably. No one I’ve recommended him to has ever been less than delighted!
Ev Ehrlich, author of Grant Speaks and Big Government
I’ve published four books and I run everything I write by Howard Mittelmark. He will find what I missed and fix it–and he’ll do it without crushing my confidence. Finding someone who will do the former is great, but someone who can do both is a godsend. Editors are buying less, magazine and newspaper space has shrunk, and competition is fierce. In this market you want to make sure that anything you submit for publication is perfect.
Stacy Horn, author of Waiting For My Cats To Die, The Restless Sleep, Unbelievable, and Cyberville
Howard Mittelmark uses his pen with the precision a skilled surgeon uses his scalpel. He leaves everything essential intact. He is intelligent and creative, and makes suggestions with consideration and without being overbearing. Even more important, he helped me keep my voice, while helping me with pacing and storyline. Howard Mittelmark is a master craftsman. He makes me a better storyteller, and his editing made my stories better reads.
Carol Gino, author of The Nurse’s Story, Rusty’s Story, and Then An Angel Came. Carol also completed Mario Puzo’s final, and posthumous, novel, The Family
For me, the jump from food and travel journalism to thriller writing was not effortless. The first draft of my first novel had many strengths, but the book felt stodgy and overwritten. Howard cut about 20,000 words from an almost 140,000 word text. His edit pulled the story’s skeleton forward out of the murk, but it was also effectively a textbook in How to Write a Novel. Howard taught me about my tendency toward self-indulgence, my compulsion to overpack a story with numbing detail, and about the myriad little redundancies and lazy constructions which choked the narrative flow. My second draft was a lot stronger, and the third better still. By my second book, all of his lessons had taken root; I’m now on my third, and everything Howard has taught me has become completely engrained. I remain eternally grateful for his help, and for his example.
Jonathan Hayes, author of Precious Blood and A Hard Death
