Many writing books offer sound advice on how to write well. This is not one of those books. On the contrary, this is a collection of terrible, awkward, and laughably unreadable excerpts that will teach you what to avoid -- at all costs -- if you ever want your novel published. In How Not to Write a Novel, authors Howard Mittelmark and Sandra Newman distill their 30 years combined experience in teaching, editing, writing, and reviewing fiction to bring...

A representation of the American humorist's works features an eclectic mix of writings, including "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," "The Stolen White Elephant," and the novella The Mysterious Stranger.