HY BENDER                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

hy@hyreviews.com  ·  BookProposal.net ·  HyOnYourScript.com ·  BestNewYorkComedy.com

 

 

SUMMARY   World-class writer/editor who has written or co-written 16 acclaimed books under

                      my own name—including five Dummies books and a Complete Idiot’s Guide
                                          that have sold hundreds of thousands of copies; for clients who were first-time
                                          authors, ghostwritten two books that became New York Times bestsellers
                                          (one mega-seller reached #16 on Amazon.com); written articles for such
                                          diverse national publications as The New York Times, Spy, American Film,
                                          Advertising Age; and Mad Magazine; created scores of business documents,
                                          user guides, and help systems for such renowned organizations as Morgan Stanley,
                                          Reuters, New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), American Insurance Group
                                          (AIG), Northern Telecom, Juno Online Services, and the U.S. Air Force;
                                          for a podcast about millennials, interviewed such powerhouse corporations
                                          as Microsoft, AT&T, 3M, Dow Jones/The Wall Street Journal, Deloitte,
                                          Pricewaterhousecoopers, Siemens, Eli Lilly, The Mayo Clinic, Salk Institute,
                                          Genentech, State Farm, Allstate, WordPress.com, Tumblr, and dozens more;
                                          and as a producer, scouted and developed comedy TV and film projects.

                                          I'm an expert at quickly learning a subject via phone interviews, online and
                                          paper research, and careful study of all other relevant information, and then
                                          crafting friendly, entertaining, and meticulously accurate prose that
                                          communicates clearly and compellingly to mass audiences.

 

BOOKS

 

2006-Present   Help writers—ranging from total beginners to New York Times bestselling authors
and Hollywood screenwriters—turn their ideas into dynamic book proposals

                      and/or screenplays, and/or TV shows. For example, I helped one recent client—

                      a first-time author and non-celebrity—get a $1 million advance for his book...and

                      without the involvement of any agent. (This is almost unheard of.) The book went on
                                          to become a New York Times bestseller and reached #16 on Amazon.com.

 

2016-Present   Editing short story anthology Ghosts On Drugs, a cross-genre book I dreamed up and
am producing with Will Paoletto. For details, please visit http://GhostsOnDrugs.com.

 

2013               Edited Steve Olsher’s superb book What Is Your WHAT?, which was published
by Wiley. Steve kindly wrote in his Acknowledgements, "My heartfelt thanks

                       goes to Hy Bender, the world’s best editor, for continuing to teach me
the difference between writing and being a writer."

 

2012               Contributed to graphic horror novel The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,

                      which was illustrated by Simon Bisley and published by Heavy Metal.

 

2011               Co-wrote The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Thyroid Disease, which

                      leveraged advances in both mainstream and alternative medicine

                      to provide cutting-edge advice on what symptoms to look for,

                      and how to test, diagnose, and treat hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism,

                      thyroid cancer, and other thyroid diseases. Also included the latest

                      medical knowledge on how to shed fat, eat smart, and maintain

                      a healthy lifestyle.

 

2008-2009       Ghostwrote a book about organic products, and how to purchase them

                      conveniently and inexpensively regardless of location. (I normally

                      can’t list “ghost projects” here, but in this case the clients generously

                      gave their permission.)

 

2004               Contributed to Prentice-Hall book on troubleshooting Windows and Microsoft Office.

 

2003               Wrote College Survival Guide, a campus guidebook for new students on

                      how to deal with such adult challenges as alcohol, drugs, depression, and sex.

 

2000               Contributed to The Mad Companion, a humor book published by Mad magazine.

 

1998-1999       Wrote The Sandman Companion for DC Comics, a bestselling literary guide/

                      biography about fantasy author superstar Neil Gaiman’s epic on mythology and

                      dreams (which has sold millions of copies). Creating this book involved

                      interviewing over two dozen people who worked on Sandman and then

                      editing 100+ hours of taped conversations.

 

1996-1998       Wrote or cowrote five books in the bestselling Dummies series:

·        Dummies 101: The Internet for Windows 98

·        Dummies 101: The Internet for Windows 95 (with M. L. Young)

·        Dummies 101: Netscape Communicator 4

·        Dummies 101: Netscape Navigator (with M. L. Young)

·        The Internet for Dummies—Starter Kit Edition (with three other authors)

 

                      The Dummies 101 books are 250-page step-by-step tutorials that take novices

                      by the hand and carefully teach them how to use Internet features such as email

                      and the World Wide Web. Each of these books includes a software-crammed

                      CD that I designed and is supplemented by Web sites that I co-designed. Online

                      superstore Amazon.com said of my Communicator book, “This is possibly the

                      single best book to hand someone who is a relative beginner on the Web.”

 

1995               Wrote Getting Started With Windows 95 for WEKA, a hands-on introduction to

                      Windows that became the second most successful book in the publisher’s history.

 

1993-1994       Wrote Essential Software for Writers, a 500-page book that L. R. Shannon in

                      The New York Times called “exhaustive” and “lots of fun,” and Jerry Pournelle

                      in Byte Magazine designated as “the book of  the month.Peter McWilliams

                      wrote in his syndicated Personal Computers column, “The fact he has reviewed
                                          so much in the course of a year astounds me. This book is the best of its kind.”

                      Creating the book involved carefully evaluating over 200 top writing-related

                      programs, including idea generators, grammar checkers, style replicators, electronic

                      dictionaries and thesauruses, poetry processors, and online reference sources.

 

1990-1992       Wrote two editions of PC Tools: The Complete Reference, a 900-page tome

                      published by Osborne/McGraw-Hill. Computer Currents magazine included

                      this book on its annual list of the top dozen computer books of the year,

                      calling it the best and a valuable reference.

 

1989               Wrote Excel Quick Reference, a 160-page book published by Macmillan/Que

                      that I created in 10 days. It went on to sell over 60,000 copies.

 

 

WEBSITES, PODCASTS, MAGAZINES, AND NEWSPAPERS

 

2007-Present   Run the following websites:

·        BookProposal.net: My book proposal and manuscript development service.

·        HyOnYourScript.com: My screenplay analysis and doctoring service.

·        BestNewYorkComedy.com: Coverage of NYC live comedy.

·        HyReviews.com: Coverage of NYC live comedy, NYC theatre, and more.

·        CIGThyroid.com: The official site of my 16th book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Thyroid Disease.

 

2015-2016       Co-hosted podcast The Millennial Career Playbook (TMCPB.com),

                      for which I interviewed such powerhouse corporations as
                                          Microsoft, AT&T, 3M, Dow Jones/The Wall Street Journal, Deloitte,
                                          Pricewaterhousecoopers, Siemens, Eli Lilly, The Mayo Clinic, Salk Institute,
                                          Genentech, State Farm, Allstate, WordPress.com, Tumblr, and dozens more
                                          about best practices for attracting and retaining millennial employees.

 

1989-Present   Sold media-related articles to such national magazines as Mad Magazine,

                      Spy, American Film, Advertising Age, Bottom Line/Personal, and

                      FOLIO: The Magazine for Magazine Management. Also sold articles

                      to such technical publications as PC Magazine, PC World, PC Week,

                      and Yahoo! Internet Life.

 

2005               Wrote theatre reviews for The New York Times Arts & Leisure section.

 

2001-2002       For Techbargains.com, a Web site garnering 5 million page-views per month,

                      wrote reviews of top-of-the-line software. Programs critiqued included

                      Microsoft Office, Dreamweaver, and Adobe Photoshop.

 

 

USER GUIDES, ONLINE HELP SYSTEMS, AND BUSINESS WRITING

 

2006               For the U.S. Congress, worked on Web-based information retrieval/analysis tool.

 

2005               For Reuters, created online help system (via RoboHelp) for Reuters Knowledge,

                      a powerful Web-based financial research & analysis tool used by tens of thousands

                      of high-level investment managers, investment bankers, and corporate officers.

 

2004               For Gallery Systems, created Web-based online help system (via RoboHelp) for

                      eMuseum, a tool for publishing museum collections on the Web. GS’ 500+ clients

                      include The Metropolitan Museum of Art, MOMA, and The Smithsonian.

 

2003               For New York Mercantile Exchange, created Web-based online help system

                      (via RoboHelp) and 125-page printed guide (via Microsoft Word) to help traders

                      around the world use NYMEX's new Web-based financial software.

 

2003               For WorkRelationShips, Inc., wrote best practices proposals for corporate managers.

 

2002-2003       For U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, wrote 250-page user guide and

                      complex RoboHelp online guide documenting AI system that helps create

                      software ranging from military simulations to state-of-the-art games.

 

1999-2001       For Morgan Stanley, created 150-page user guides, and sophisticated RoboHelp

                      HTML online help systems with search engines, detailed indexes, and

                      hundreds of crisscrossing hyperlinks, for the following financial divisions:

 

·        Program Management Office: Provided extensive advice and Web-based

forms to help project managers perform their jobs effectively,

consolidate their project information online, and streamline

their reporting to senior management.

 

 

·        Private Wealth Management: Detailed the work process of PWM salespeople,
managers, and controllers; and provided step-by-step instructions on
how to analyze and report on PWM’s daily multimillion dollar trading activities.

 

·        Derivative Products & Foreign Exchange Groups: Provided step-by-step

instructions on how to evaluate customer account applications via intranet sites.

 

 

1999               For Blink.com, worked with marketing staff and Web artists to make this new

                      site appealing and accessible. The site quickly went on to receive accolades from

                      PC Magazine and Forbes, and to garner $11 million in second-round financing.

 


1999               For Vitech Systems, wrote 150-page guide to private equity administration program

                      used by Goldman Sachs, DLJ, Thomas Lee, and other major financial institutions.

 

1999               For Juno Online Services, used RoboHelp to rewrite and expand the online

                      help system of Juno version 3.0, an email program and World Wide Web dialer

                      used by this Internet giant’s 6.5 million customers.

 

1998-1999       For Microvideo Learning Systems, wrote video scripts and workbooks for eight

                      two-hour video training tapes on Microsoft Windows and popular spreadsheet,

                      database, and word processing software. These videotapes were purchased at a cost

                      of $500 to$1,000 each by such top organizations as IBM, AT&T, American Express,

                      Pepsico, Texaco, Mobil Oil, Dow Chemical, R. J. Reynolds, Sprint, NYNEX, Chase

                      Manhattan, the FBI, the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Navy, and the United Nations.

 

 

MISCELLANEOUS

 

2016-2017       As Director of Television and Film Development for MSP, scouted and
                                          negotiated contracts for comedy projects worthy of development,
                                          scouted and hired comedy talent, and produced comedy pilots.

 

2004-2011       Ran respected biweekly screenwriting workshop NYScreenwriters.org,

                      which helped writers improve their screenplays via cold readings and

                      incisive critiques, and also allowed actors and directors to network with

                      our writers (which led to some fruitful collaborations).

 

1994-2002       Ran monthly reading group for writers that analyzed the works of great

                      twentieth century novelists such as William Faulkner, James Joyce,

                      Gabriel García Márquez., Isaac Bashevis Singer, and Vladimir Nabokov.

 

1990-1994       Ran biweekly fiction workshop that helped novelists and short story writers

                      hone their manuscripts, which resulted in several book sales.

 

 

EDUCATION

 

B.A. in Journalism, with minor in Computer Science, from New York University.

 

 

A NOTE ABOUT LOCATION

 

I can perform stellar work for you no matter where you operate. Although I live in New York,

my clients' locations have ranged from California to London to Australia; and between

phone interviews and email exchanges, we've never experienced a single communications problem.

My savvy clients understand that it's preferable to work with an exceptionally skilled

and efficient writer than someone who simply happens to live nearby.