Agents don’t always have the bandwidth or the expertise to do significant developmental editing before taking a project out on submission. That’s why we’re here.

Think of the Book Engineer as your personal in-house editorial development team. Our job is to help your clients create more saleable projects. This may be as simple as a freelance edit of a novel that they’re struggling to revise, or it may get much more personalized: adapting a client’s successful nonfiction book for a younger audience, co-writing a manuscript with a client who doesn’t have the time or expertise to go it alone, or doing a deep-dive through a client’s past work to pitch ideas for what should come next.

We can be especially helpful with clients who are talented storytellers but don’t have book-writing experience: for example, we worked with the actress Viola Davis and the fine artist Xu Bing to create their first books.  If you have clients who need help delivering that next project, the Book Engineer can work with them in whatever way they need.

Leila has consistently surprised and impressed me with her brilliant writing, incisive thinking, and keen understanding of the publishing industry in all its facets. I consider myself lucky to work with Leila, and I know others will benefit tremendously from her guidance.
—Stephen Barbara, literary agent with InkWell Management

Founder Leila Sales spent a decade as an acquiring editor at Penguin Random House and has written books published by Abrams, Chronicle, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster. As an experienced author and editor, Leila is uniquely qualified to get inside your client’s mind and process while also creating books that editors want to publish.

Some of the many literary agencies who have engaged our services include Writers House, UTA, HG Literary, Greenhouse Literary Agency, Stonesong, Janna Co., and Leigh Feldman Literary, among others.