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New Content Disclosures Policy

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Looseleaf will now request content disclosures for new projects. I know these sorts of content flags make some authors nervous. Are we saying you shouldn’t write about these things? Why can’t we just let you write about the difficult things of the world? Shouldn’t art explore the full breadth of human experience?

The answers: These topics can be very important to write about, we have no desire to stop you writing about difficult things, and art should be a mirror for the full spectrum of experience. So why do we ask for these disclosures?

So we can find you the best fit on our team and so whoever works on your project can be at their best. [Read more…] about New Content Disclosures Policy

Looseleaf Is Growing!

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Meet the Looseleaf team: an image with three headshots in it.We are pleased to announce that Looseleaf is growing in exciting ways. Most significantly for our clients, some truly talented editors have joined the Looseleaf team, which will shorten the wait time for new and existing clients who schedule our top-notch services. Even though we are growing, Kristy S. Gilbert—Looseleaf’s founder and executive editor—personally directs and coaches our team of editors to ensure that we still provide Looseleaf’s unique suite of editing and book layout services to get your book reader-ready (read more about our growing team further below). [Read more…] about Looseleaf Is Growing!

LTUE 2022 Schedule

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The Life, the Universe, & Everything Symposium is coming up, and Looseleaf is attending. (LTUE is evolving the conference as data changes for covid, so this schedule—and whether the conference is in-person or virtual—is still subject to change.) There will be a Looseleaf table in the vendors room and I’ll be on the following panels:

Thursday

9:00 AM—The Editor’s Toolbox

1:00 PM—The Book Was Better (the discussion will be more nuanced than the session title!)

3:00 PM—Editing Conlangs (i.e., constructed languages)

5:00 PM—Conscious Editing

6:00 PM—Learn How to Land Emotional Responses from Video Games (I’m the moderator for this one)

Friday

No panels scheduled (come visit me in the vendors room!)

Saturday

9:00 AM—Learning the Lingo of Publishing

12:00 PM—Cooking Through the Ages

1:00 PM—The One: Finding Your Editorial Match

3:00 PM—The Author-Editor Relationship

I’m happy to chat about writing, editing, book design, and anything in between.

2021’s Brave New Things

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Time may be an illusion, but it can be a useful one. This week marks my birthday, and this year is an even decade after I opened my own editing and design firm in 2011. These milestones, however artificial, give me a chance to reflect on how I’ve grown this year.

But growth doesn’t always mean new external achievements. Sometimes it just means being braver than you were before. One guiding star I’ve used when measuring my growth has been this discussion of courage by Catherynne M. Valente:

When you are born … your courage is new and clean. You are brave enough for anything: crawling off of staircases, saying your first words without fearing someone will think you foolish, putting strange things in your mouth. But as you get older, your courage attracts gunk, and crusty things, and fear, and knowing how bad things can get and what pain feels like. By the time you’re half-grown, your courage barely moves at all, it’s so grunged up with living. So every once in a while, you have to scrub it up again and get the works going, or else you’ll never be brave again. [1]Valente, Catherynne M. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. New York: Feiwel & Friends, 2011.

I’ve tried to keep the idea of scrubbing up my courage in mind for several years now, always biting off a bit of something new that scares me but is worth doing anyway. Swallowing the fear keeps the gears greased.

So what have I done to grow this year? A lot of things. Here are some of the bookish ones. [Read more…] about 2021’s Brave New Things

References

References
↑1 Valente, Catherynne M. The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. New York: Feiwel & Friends, 2011.

How Freelance Editors Find Work

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A semi-obscured data chart overlaid with the text, "How Freelance Editors Find Work."Earlier this summer, I polled the Utah Freelance Editors to learn how UFE members run their freelance editing businesses. Today, the results of the first survey—the one about how editors find work—goes live on the UFE blog.

Check it out here!

The article covers which avenues editors use to find work and how to make the most of each pipeline:

  • personal referrals
  • online marketplaces
  • job lists
  • social media
  • conferences
  • subcontracting for editing companies

The article ends with UFE members’ best advice for finding work and building an editing clientele.

6 (Business) Lessons Learned from a Decade of Editing

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A small plant growing out of a cup filled with coins. Overlaid text reads: "6 Lessons Learned from a Decade of Freelance Editing."I’m hosting Business Month this August on the Utah Freelance Editors blog. Each week will feature one or more articles (by me or other UFE members) about the business of freelance editing.

Today I got the ball rolling with part one of my article “6 Lessons Learned from a Decade of Freelance Editing.” Part two is available here, and then the articles will dive into hard data and action points.

Try Something New

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A segment of a fantasy-style map that shows some mountains, a river, and a plain. The plain is labeled, "Try Something New. Not every book needs to be published. It's OK to write a new idea. Back to the Draft Marshes!"Completing a book is a monumental achievement in a book journey. You successfully navigated the Draft Marshes, no simple task. Perhaps you’ve even braved the Range of Revision or hiked the Line Edit Foothills. But it’s possible to make that journey and choose not to continue to Publish Bay. Not every book is meant to be or needs to be published. [Read more…] about Try Something New

The Querying Sands

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A fantasy-style map zoomed in on some desert dunes that are labeled "Querying Sands."After you’ve hiked the Line Edit Foothills, you come to a crossroads: Do you try to entice a traditional publisher to edit, design, produce, and market your book; do you do that work on your own to self-publish; or do you start a new writing project?

If you want a publisher to put out your book, you’re going to trek through the Querying Sands, a hostile-looking path. [Read more…] about The Querying Sands