Even if an editor or designer is awesome, that doesn’t automatically make them the right kind of awesome for your book. It’s important to find the right fit for your work. Look for a professional with an editorial approach, genre specialties, timelines, pricing, and a communication style that work for you.
Editorial Approach
Looseleaf focuses on getting books reader ready. That means our goal is to make your book an even more excellent version of what you want it to be in a way that will help you communicate your purpose, story, and theme to readers. We also aim to provide authors with explanations and tools that help them become better writers for the next book—and the next—rather than adjusting only one manuscript. Especially when editing science fiction and fantasy, Looseleaf supports immersive worldbuilding and reader experiences.
Genre Specialties
Editing
In the past, Looseleaf has provided editing for a wide spread of genres: sweet romance fiction to personal finance guides and fantasy epics to comic books. But the firm now focuses where our genre literacy and audience awareness is strongest: we now take only fantasy, science fiction, magic realism, and folklore-centered fiction.
For line editing, it’s best to look at our portfolio and or request a sample edit to determine if we’re a good style match for your stuff.
Looseleaf’s founder, Kristy S. Gilbert, has an extensive background in science fiction and fantasy (check out our genre portfolio), a bachelor’s degree in English literature (with a minor in editing), and an MA in English with an emphasis on folklore, fairy tales, and media studies. She also has personal and professional editing experience with the US military and unarmed martial arts, so she can be a good fit for military SF or books with close-combat sequences. (Learn more about Kristy.) The rest of the team have slightly different emphases and preferences, but all are well equipped for science fiction and fantasy. (Learn more about the team.)
Book Design
Looseleaf’s book layout services are a great fit for science fiction and fantasy authors targeting age categories from middle grade to adult. Our designs emphasize fluid readability, effective visual communication, and stylistic support for your book’s tone, message, and audience. Our founder and lead designer, Kristy, has experience preparing print and ebooks for simple print-on-demand layouts all the way to custom bulk print jobs with spot ink and lots of illustration. (Good examples of this higher-end design are in her work for Dragonsteel Entertainment.)
Timelines
Looseleaf is usually booked 1-6 months in advance for editing services and 1-4 months in advance for custom design services. (Need your book designed faster? Check out our template-based book design service.) Depending on the length of the book and the type of work, Looseleaf’s work on your book will be complete 2-8 weeks after we start. (Need more details? Contact us with more information about your project.)
We provide a waitlist option. If you reserve time in Looseleaf’s schedule but would like an earlier time if we have a surprise opening, you can opt in to our waitlist to be one of the first to know if we have a cancellation.
We sometimes take rush projects for folks we’ve worked with before, but hardly ever for new clients.
Pricing
Looseleaf’s editing prices are reasonable professional rates:
- Critique on the first 50 pages (approx. 12,500 words): $300
- Full manuscript evaluation: starting at $1,000 for up to 100K words
- Developmental editing: $0.06/word per round
- Line editing: $0.04/word
- Copyediting: $0.03/word
- Proofreading: $0.02/word
Not sure what type of editing you need?
Check out our guide to the types of editing.
Looseleaf’s design prices vary depending on a book’s complexity, so it’s best to get a quote specific to your project. But here are the starting prices for most books.
- Classic bundle (simple narrative books in print and ebook): starting at $1,200
- Bonus bundle (books with some complexities in print and ebook): starting at $1,400
- Top Shelf (books with the most complexity in print and ebook): starting at $1,650
- Print-only designs: starting at $825
- Ebook-only designs: starting at $400
- Hourly graphic design for covers and promotional materials: $70/hour
Want more information on a fully custom book design?
Contact us with details about your book.
If custom design isn’t a good fit for your project, check out our template-based book design service.
Communication
Looseleaf responds to most emails within 1-2 business days (unless we’re out of office, in which case you’ll receive an OOO message). Phone or video calls must be scheduled in advance, and we don’t use text messaging for professional communications. Weekend communication is usually restricted to rush projects (which are subject to a rush fee).
Once we have a signed contract with a new client, we ask if you prefer us to email you with questions as they come up or to bundle them weekly (or monthly, depending on the project) so we can best facilitate your communication style.
Think Looseleaf’s right for you?
