Joseph Gartrell, Word Mule founder and chief, hauls each submitted manuscript up to his secret editing cabin in the mountains, and when he descends—haggard, hairy, all but feral—manuscripts just flow a little better. The dialogue works. Plot holes are plugged. Inconsistencies and redundancies are reduced to near extinction. Mr. Gartrell (he demands respect) is a former newspaperman currently serving as an acquisitions editor for The History Press. He studied creative writing at Ohio State and journalism at Kent State. He’s lactose sensitive but routinely plays dairy roulette—for the thrill.

“If I were still among the living, if I hadn't been taken post-horsefall when I was but a boy of 64, I'd certainly ask the crack team at Word Mule to copy edit each draft of my fiction.” — William Faulkner