It’s time to get the gang back together! Earlier in your book journey, you split the party to tackle initial design work and copyediting at the same time. Now you need to bring your polished text and your design tools together to create print-ready files and distribution-ready ebooks. This is where the Design Pines and the Red-Ink Woods meet. [Read more…] about Reunite the Party: Typesetting & Ebook Formatting
book design
The Design Pines
The Design Pines are a leg of the self-publishing book journey after line edits. This forest is where you gather materials and build tools to create the visual magic of your story. Unless you’re a skilled visual artist and graphic designer yourself, it’s wise to enlist one or more book designers. (If you’re publishing traditionally after a trip through the Querying Sands, your publisher will hire them.)
Because visual magic is usually less familiar to writers than wordy wonder is, this post is more detailed than the previous Book Journey Map explanations—and there are more free resources for more info at the end. [Read more…] about The Design Pines
Gifts for Writers: Editing & Book Design Gift Cards
Perfect Gifts for Writers
There are lots of great options for holiday gifts for writers. Notebooks, pens, and books spring to mind. But if you want to go beyond the basic and give your beloved writer a catalyst for their craft, consider Looseleaf Editorial & Production’s new gift cards. They can be redeemed toward any editorial services and any of our book design packages. Until November 30, all gift cards are 15% off!
Level Up Your Writer Friend
When you give your writer access to professional editorial feedback and publishing support, you also give them your vote of confidence. Writing can be a lonely pursuit, but knowing you have friends rooting for you can boost you through the rough patches. Many writers get nervous about taking the step to get professional input on their work, but almost all of them benefit from even brief consultations with a practiced editorial pro. Looseleaf’s philosophy is to help writers become better writers, not just improve a specific book or manuscript. We work to help every writer we interact with to level up, no matter their writing level or goals.
A Versatile Option
Because writers’ goals and backgrounds vary widely, it can be difficult for friends and family to know what would help them most right now in their writing journey. With a gift card option, they can decide for themselves what will be most valuable! Some may need a quick look over their first chapter; others might be saving up to hire a team to self-publish their book next year. Whatever your writer’s goals are, Looseleaf can help them on their way.
We offer services for writers of all levels and goals:
- query letter consultations (for writers submitting to agents and publishers)
- manuscript evaluations (for writers getting ready for heavy revisions)
- copyediting (for writers who need some final polish)
- line editing and developmental editing (for writers who want in-depth editorial support)
Especially for self-publishers, we offer book design too:
You can’t go wrong! Pick up a gift card for your the writer in your life today.
What Is Typesetting?
I used to introduce myself as a book editor and typesetter, and people often asked me: What is typesetting? Though I now introduce myself as a book editor and designer, I’ve practiced delivering a simple answer.
Typesetting is the process of composing a text using fonts, sizes, line spacing, and other details that make it appropriate for a given audience and purpose. Professional typesetters pay particular attention to readability and strive to eliminate line breaks, paragraph breaks, hyphenation issues, and other typographic elements that can distract from the reading experience or impede a reader’s understanding.
Some professional definitions of typesetting include only the interior book design—selecting the fonts and styling to package your story—or finessing your book into a smooth ride for your reader. Here at Looseleaf, we do both, because one without the other is a little lame, and your book should never be lame. Below are some of the wrinkles Looseleaf irons out in a print layout after making the important design decisions for your book. [Read more…] about What Is Typesetting?
