AA (Author’s Alteration): An abbreviation for changes to proof that are charged to author mistake or author change. (Contrast with PE, printer’s error, or EA/HA, editor’s alteration/ house alteration.)
AAR: The Association of Author Representatives (http://www.aar-online.org/mc/page.do) is an organization for agents that endorse certain guidelines for agents, including a no reading fee policy. Generally, the elite of the agent’s corps are members of AAR, and agents must attain certain levels of sales to be eligible for membership.
ABA: The American Bookseller Association (http://www.BookWeb.org) is a not-for-profit organization for independently owned bookstores.
ABI: Acronym for the form providing information about titles that is sent to R. R. Bowker for inclusion in Books in Print, the source that most regular and online bookstores use to order and stock books.
Acid-Free Paper: A stronger, longer lasting paper that can add to the cost of published books. U.S. standards promote such paper for books.
Acknowledgments: A front-matter section of a book in which the author notes appreciation for the people who have helped in the writing and/or production of the book.
Acquisition: The function of a publisher contracting with an author to publish his/her book. The editor who acquires books for publishing houses is known as an acquisitions editor.
Advance: A prepayment of publication amount of money paid to an author that speculates on earnings. Before any royalties are paid to the author, the publisher must first recoup the amount of advance money, but if total royalties do not recoup the advance, the shortfall does not have to be returned.
Advance Review Copies (ARCs): Books sent out to reviewers and others prior to a book’s release date. This is an important step in book promotion, because the response may help in determining the number of books to be printed in the initial phase.
Agency Clause: This is a clause frequently included in a literary agency contract with an author whereby the publisher pays all royalties to the agency rather than directly to the author. The agent then takes out his/her share before sending the rest to the author.
Agent: Reputable agents are literary professionals who offer their expertise in assisting authors by presenting their manuscripts to publishers, negotiating contracts, and functioning as the go-between for royalty checks. Agents normally receive commissions of 10 to 15 percent of the advance and royalties paid to the author.
Agent Submission: Manuscripts submitted to publishing houses via agents. Some of the bigger houses will only accept manuscripts submitted by an agent.
Agent’s Exclusive: An agreement between an author and an agent whereby the author agrees not to send a manuscript to anyone else either for a specified amount of time or until the agent has decided whether or not to offer representation.
Alignment: These are the margin settings for manuscripts (see Justified Text below).
Americana: A subcategorized genre concerning American culture, history, or folklore.
Annuals: Books updated and republished each year, such as the Writer’s Market.
Artwork or Illustrations: Graphics (photographs, drawings, maps, and so forth) used to enhance or explain a printed work.
Ascender: The part of a lowercase letter that rises above the character midpoint for that font (e.g., the upper portion of the letters b and d).
Assignment: A writing project that is contracted before the material is prepared, unlike an "on spec" writing piece, which is written to specification but without any commitment to buy.
Attachment: Computer files that can be attached to e-mail notes. Some agents and publishers may ask for e-mail attached files of chapters. Most e-zines require it. But no addressee wants attachments to unsolicited e-mail queries; as these can easily carry viruses, they often will be destroyed without being opened or read.
Audience: A specific group or age of people to whom a book or article is targeted.
Author’s Alteration (AA): Author’s mistakes and adjustments not caught and corrected before composition. These are contrasted by PEs (printer’s errors) and HAs (house alterations, also termed EAs, editor’s alterations). The printer covers the cost of correcting PEs; the publisher covers the costs of correcting all of the HAs and a contracted percentage of the AAs (with the author paying for AAs that are more numerous than the allowance they have been given.)
Back Margin: Also known as the gutter, this is the inner margin of a page, along the binding.
Back Matter: The back section of a book that could include the author biography, glossary, appendix, endnotes, bibliography, index, afterword, and/or epilogue.
Backlist: A publisher’s list of books printed in the past and still on offer that still sell without special promotion. A strong backlist generally includes books by classic authors of the past as well as proven best sellers of the not too distant past.
Bar Code: The lined back cover code found on books. It shows the ISBN number transferred into a worldwide compatible optical character recognition (OCR) form; the scanned lines will identify the title, author, and publisher of the book. The bar code primarily is used to scan for the current price in the central records system, to help create the receipt for a sold book, and to help create records of sales.
Baseline: The imaginary line on which a line of print seems to be sitting on.
BEA: Book Expo America holds the distinction of being the largest book publishing trade show in the United States. Held in New York, usually in May, it boasts more than 2000 exhibitors.
Big Box Stores: Companies that own many bookstores throughout the country. Some of the better known are Barnes & Noble, Borders, and Hastings.
Binding: The book spine mechanism that holds a book together. These can vary from glue to wire, or other means.
Bleed: A cover art technique where the illustration coverage extends off the page.
Block Quotation: Quoted material set in from the left margin from the text on the page. Also called an extract.
Blueline: A preproduction proof used to detect errors and make corrections.
Blurbs: A hook paragraph and/or endorsement quotes that appear on the back cover or jacket of a book.
Body Copy: The contents of the main (middle) section of a book. Books have three parts, the front matter, the book copy, and back matter.
Boilerplate: The term used for the standard language of the clauses in a contract.
Boldface: Type that is darker on the page than the normal type, which is known as roman type. (See also italic).
Book Block: This incorporates all of the pages in a book between the covers.
Book Boards: Very simple books that are short, thick, and square for infants and toddlers.
Book Doctor: An editor, generally freelancer, who is hired by an author or publisher to essentially rewrite and/or restructure a manuscript to make it publishable.
Book Jacket: A paper dust cover put over some hardcover books to prolong the life of the hard cover, enhance the appearance, and help with marketing.
Book Manufacturing: The total process of printing and assembling a book.
Book Packager: A company that handles the entire production of a book for a publisher. Packagers sometimes accept manuscripts, which they in turn sell to publishers.
Book Plus: Term used when something else is packaged with a book such as a video game or toy.
Book Signing: A book-selling event set up to introduce authors to (and sell books to) readers. Authors can do readings, conduct workshops, or just visit. At such an event, the author signs copies of their books, which often are being sold at the venue.
Bricks and Mortar Stores: Actual bookstores that stock books for browsing and sale, as opposed to online bookstores.
Brochure: An advertising page or two that describes a book and/or event.
Bulk: The total pages in depth in a book per inch without the cover.
Byline: Credit given to an author of an article or feature in a magazine or newspaper.
Camera-Ready Copy: A term used when the manuscript is typeset and ready for reproduction. Film is often used for printing plates.
Caps: Abbreviation for capital letters.
Case: A hard cover in which book text pages are glued or wired.
Case Binding: Cloth or leather binding used to cover some hardback books. Some are stitched together before binding is applied.
Castoff: The estimate made by a publisher’s production department on the number of printed pages a manuscript and its auxiliary matter will equal in the chosen font, font size, and book design.
Category: Term used to describe the various niche classifications of nonfiction books.
Chapbook: A small book, usually used for a collection of prose or poems.
Character: (1) An individual depicted in a book; (2) A letter, numeral, symbol, mark of punctuation, or space in a line of type on a page.
Chains: Companies that own many bookstores throughout the country. Some of the better known are Barnes & Noble, Borders, and Hastings.
Chapter Books: Reading books for older children. Some have illustrations but tell the story through the printed words.
CIP: The Cataloging in Publication indexing program is a service of the Library of Congress, where card catalog information is constructed and provided to be printed on the copyright page for books published by traditional publishers. Many libraries only buy books with CIPs.
Clip Art: Drawings and pictures intended to be cut and pasted in printed material. These are also useful when building Web sites. Much clip art is available on the Internet for free use. (It will be clearly marked as such if this is true, however.)
Clips: Also called tear sheets, these are facsimile examples of a writer’s published work. Some markets require clips before they will consider adopting the work of a new writer and/or giving writing assignments to a new writer.
Code: A typographic symbol embedded in a text to alert the book compositors to provide special typographical treatment for a letter, word, or phrase.
Commission: A commissioned work by a publisher is paid with a set fee and what is known as a work-for-hire basis instead of for royalties. The author writes exactly what the publisher specifies for an established fee, and the publisher owns the copyright.
Comp: An abbreviation for either the process of setting the type for a book or periodical article and/or the person who performs this function, who is also called a compositor or a typesetter.
Concept Book: A book that goes beyond telling a story to exploring a concept.
Contemporary: A manuscript or story that relates to the present time.
Content Editor: Also known as a substantive editor, a content editor works on the content meaning and the organization and flow of the material rather than on the mechanics (e.g., grammar, punctuation, consistent style, spelling). The acquisition editor in a publishing house often serves as the content editor of the books she/he brings to the house.
Continuous Tone: Cover or illustration art that includes gradations of tones from dark to light, as in a photograph. (Contrast with line art, which has solid black and white lines only.)
Copy Editor: A copy editor works to correct the mechanics, such as punctuation, grammar, spelling, consistency, and accuracy of facts.
Copyright: A legal designation and notice that protects an author’s original works both published and unpublished, that are expressed in a tangible form, but not the ideas themselves. Titles do not fall under copyright protection.
Cover: The two-hinged part of a binding in which the body of text is glued or wired.
Cover Letter: A letter that accompanies a manuscript after it has been requested by an agent or publisher.
Crop: To cut down an illustration for placement on finished book pages.
Credits: A list of published works that is often included in a query letter.
Critique: An evaluation of a manuscript that looks at structure, characterization, voice, and other aspects of a book and makes positive recommendations for improvement.
Crop marks: Post-print trim marks on a camera-ready manuscript.
Cross-Collateralization: Agreement by which a publisher, by contract, is allowed to charge unearned advances on a title against another title.
Deadline: Specific date or time assigned work is due to an editor.
Dedication Page: A page (or section of a page) in the front section of a book where an author can dedicate his book either to persons or institutions.
Demand Printing: A printing process by which books can be printed and bound by single-copy process.
Denouement: The last part of a story or book, where all the loose ends are explained to the reader.
Descender: The portion of the lowercase letter that extends below the baseline (e.g., the lower portion of the letters g and p).
Desktop Publishing: Production of copy with a computer and a printer that is camera ready for publication.
Digital Printing: A form of printing in which the transfer of printed words to paper is accomplished with ink-jet or laser printers rather than photographically or through computer-to-plate technology, known as offset printing.
Digital Proof: A type of page proofs that are generated directly from electronic files. An electronically assisted form of bluelines.
Direct mail: A method of advertising and marketing books by sending information directly to potential customers.
Display Type: Type that is larger, of a different font, and/or otherwise distinguishable from bodytext. This is commonly used for heads and subheads.
Distributor: Plays the role of middleman between the publisher and the buyer (with, sometimes, another layer of book seller existing between the distributor and the buyer). The distinction between the distributor and the wholesaler is often blurred. The distributor usually carries fewer titles than a wholesaler and produces a catalog that is presented to book sellers. Larger chain bookstores usually buy their books through a wholesaler.
Draft: The rough draft is the original unpolished version of a book. There can be many drafts between that and the final draft in which everything is ready for submitting or publishing.
DRM: Digital Rights Management, which is a form of encryption used to protect intellectual property from copyright infringement.
Drop Cap: The uppercased first character of word that is larger—and sometimes fancier—than the normal font size being used and drops into the lines below it. This typically is used for the first letter of the first word in a chapter.
Dummy: Bound mockup of a book that includes text and illustrations. Mostly juvenile publishers for picture books request these.
Dust Jacket: A protective covering, usually made of laminated paper, that covers a clothbound book. It usually has a cover design and includes a capsule teaser, testimonials, and the author’s short biography.
EA (Editor’s Alteration): A publishing house-created mistake not caught and corrected before composition or a publishing house alteration for any other reason when the book is in page proofs. (Sometimes termed an HA, house alteration). (Contrast with a PE, printer’s error, or AA, author’s alteration.)
Earn Out: When enough copies of a book have been sold to earn the advance issued to the author. Assessment of royalties starts with books sold after this point.
Easy Readers: Book genre permitting only vocabulary easily read by beginning readers.
E-Book: A book set in electronic format. E-books can be downloaded in Adobe, PDF, E-Book Reader format, Microsoft’s LIT format, and other formats.
Edition: A book or other publication that is released for a second or subsequent time by a publisher after having been updated or rewritten in any other way. A book released again without alterations is called a reprint.
Editor: One of several functions in publishing. The acquisition editor acquires a book for the publishing and acts as liaison between the author and publisher during the process of production and publication. The content editor (a function often performed by the acquisition editor) scrutinizes the content and structure of a manuscript and looks for ways to enhance the publishing value of the book. The copy editor massages the book for improved grammar, punctuation, style, spelling, format, consistency, and accuracy of facts. The production editor sets the book up for printing and carries the book through the production phase.
Editor’s Alteration (EA): A publishing house-created mistake not caught and corrected before composition or a publishing house alteration for any other reason when the book is in page proofs. (Sometimes termed an HA, house alteration.) (Contrast with a PE, printer’s error, or AA, author’s alteration.)
Electronic Rights: Rights to create E-books, audio books, video games, and other electronic devices from a manuscript.
Electronic Submission: Manuscripts submitted through electronic means such as e-mail, computer discs, PDF files, and other electronic means via computers.
E-Mail Query: Some agents, publishers, publicists, and production companies accept e-mail queries. This is much faster than regular mail and saves on postage. Some will request chapters and allow them, upon explicit prior agreement, to be sent as an e-mail attachment.
Em: A measurement of character space. For instance, a hyphen typically is one character space in width, an en dash (used to separate inclusive numbers and compounded nouns in which one element is of more than one word) is wider than a hyphen, and an em dash (used for insertions of asides) is wider than and en dash.
Endpapers: Folded sheets pasted or sewn to the first and last signatures (page sections) of books to help secure the book within the covers.
English-Language Print Rights: These are sometimes the only rights purchased by a publisher of an author’s work. They refer to all English-language versions of the printed books.
Exclusive Submission: An author agrees to send a submission to only one agent or publisher for an exclusive read for a specified time.
Extract: Quoted material set in from the text on the page. Also called a block quote.
E-Zines: With most households owning computers, many online businesses, including online magazines known as e-zines, were born. All correspondence and submissions are done on line and the magazine, when published, exists on line as well.
Faction: A fairly recent term, referring to works that straddle the fine line between fact and fiction.
Facsimile: Copies of original book editions; the existence of these frustrate book collectors.
Fair Comment: The principle under libel law that protects the publication of defamatory matter consisting of comment and opinion, as distinguished from provable fact.
Fair Use: This is part of copyright law and allows limited use of copyrighted work without asking for written permission. Under this exception, people can draw on or use small excerpts.
Fairy Tale: A fiction genre of children’s folktales with augmented literary elements.
Fantasy: A major fiction genre that includes stories taking place in an invented or unrealistic world; stories featuring magic, wizardry, swords, and sorcery, often with supernatural feats.
Fiction: Works based on stories generally born in the author’s imagination. Sometimes people write fiction based on a true story, but they must be careful to change the names, locations, and anything else that hints at the real story. The sky is the limit with fiction. People can write about make-believe worlds, magic, and anything that strikes their fancy.
File: A block of electronic text with a unique name and location in a computer program. Files for books can be constructed by chapter, part, or whole text.
First Refusal: An agreement by which an agent or publisher has first right of reviewing and either accepting or rejecting a subsequent work of another (usually specified as either "first refusal of next manuscript" or "first refusal on all manuscripts").
First Serial Rights: This allows work to be excerpted in magazines or other periodicals.
Flat Fee: A one-time payment for rights to work, eliminating both an advance against royalties and the royalties themselves.
Flexibinding: A method of binding that is lighter and less bulky than a casebound book but more sturdy than a paperback book.
FNASR: First North American Serial Rights, which sometimes are required rights by magazines and other periodicals.
Flush: Justification alignment of word columns on a page. Flush left is set solid against the left margin, with a ragged right edge; flush right is set solid against the right margin, with a ragged left edge. (As opposed to full justification, where lines are set solid on both left and right margins with the variation in the number of characters on the line taken up with varied spacing between words, and center justification, where all lines are set with both left and right edges equidistant from a vertical center line.)
Folded and Gathered Sheets (F&Gs): A collection of all signatures (sections) of a book sequenced in order by page numbers.
Folio: A page number set either above or below the text of a book or periodical article.
Font: A specific typeface and point size.
Foreign-Language Rights: Rights granted to print books in foreign languages.
Foreword: Remarks written by someone other than the author as an introduction to a book.
Freelancer: Independent workers hired to write, edit, and or provide production support on articles and books.
Frontispiece: An illustration placed before the first pages of a book. It usually faces the title page. Common examples of the frontispiece are maps found in some fantasy novels.
Front List: Books being released this year by a publisher, the top authors on the list being given the most publicity.
Front Matter: The first section of a book; this is the material in the front of the book before the actual body copy starts. It includes title, half title, copyright, dedication, foreword, preface, table of contents, frontispiece, and so forth.
Fulfillment: Filling orders from buyers for books. This function is handled by the publisher, the printer, a distributor, or a company that handles the entire ordering process for books, such as storing, packing, mailing, maintaining records, and other business-related operations for the author or publisher.
Gallery: A section of illustrations grouped in consecutive, often unnumbered, pages rather than spaced throughout a work.
Galleys: Uncorrected pages sent to the author or editor for corrections before publication. Bound galley copies are also sent to reviewers so reviews will be available when the book is released.
Genre: The various niche categories used in novels. These include western, Romance, fantasy/science fiction, horror, and others. Genres themselves are sometimes broken down to subgenres. Romance can be historical, gothic, modern, suspense, and other subcategories.
Ghostwriter: Someone who writes a book for someone else, usually using his or her facts or ideas. The ghostwriter is usually paid a set fee under a work-for-hire arrangement and does not receive credit for his or her work.
Glossary: An alphabetized list of words pertinent to a book’s content, which is located in the back matter of a book.
Go-Ahead: A positive response to a query by an editor that assigns a writing job for pay or asks for it on spec.
Graphics: Artwork, photographs, figures, table, or charts used to enhance or explain a printed work.
Gutter: Also known as the back margin, this is the inner margin of a page in a book or periodical, along the binding.
HA (House Alteration): A publishing house-created mistake not caught and corrected before composition or a publishing house alteration for any other reason when the book is in page proofs. (Sometimes termed an EA, editor’s alteration.)
Hair Space: A space of less-than-full-character width set to accommodate the eye’s sense of space needed between characters, words, or other elements.
Hard Cover: A more rigid and heavier cover than those used for paperback books. Unlike paperbacks, the hard cover versions do not have the cover and book block pages evenly cut. The cover hangs over the edge of the book block pages.
Header: A caption or headline used to introduce chapters, sections, or a new topic, usually in larger and bolder typeface than the body text.
Head Margin: The margin at the top of a page.
Hook: The succinctly worded something special in plot or characterization either that makes a book unique or that makes it similar to other books that are selling well.
Horror: A major fiction genre in which the works contain and relate the actions of a monster, whether supernatural, human, or emotion driven.
House Alteration (HA): Publishing house-created mistakes not caught and corrected before composition. A publishing house alteration for any other reason when the book is in page proofs. (Sometimes termed an EA, editor’s alteration). These are contrasted by PEs (printer’s errors) and AAs (author’s adjustments). The printer covers the cost of correcting PEs; the publisher covers the costs of correcting all of the HAs and a contracted percentage of the AAs (with the author paying for AAs that are more numerous than the allowance they have been given.)
Imprint: A category of books published by a publishing house under a separate name. A publishing house can have several imprints. One may be for Romance novels, another for nonfiction health aids, and another for science fiction. It also refers to a publisher, time (as nineteenth century), or publication.
Indies/Independents: Independently owned mom and pop bookstores not affiliated with the large chains.
Independent Publisher: Someone who establishes a small press publishing house with the intention of self-publishing his/her own works; also may accept other authors’ manuscripts for publication.
Index: An alphabetical list of topics and names found in the back of a book. It includes page numbers for quick reference.
Instant Book: Books that are rushed through the process of production, usually because they deal with time-sensitive events and topics.
Introduction: A short section describing the book and introducing the reader to what is being presented in the book and how it is being present. This section is written by the author and is located in the front matter section of the book.
IRC: International Reply Coupons. These are required in lieu of stamps when sending an SASE (self-addressed stamped envelope) along with a manuscript to a foreign country.
ISBN: The International Standard Book Number is the unique number issued to every form of book. ISBN numbers identify the language, publisher, and the title of the book. Publishers order them for use in sets of ten from R. R. Bowker.
Italic: Type that is slanted, looking similar to cursive writing. (See also roman and boldface).
Jacket: The removable cover of a book, in paper form, that overlaps the hard cover.
Journal: Published for educational disciplines, special categories, or professions, these are generally considered literary and of the highest echelon. Most literary journals don’t pay, except in copies, but it’s considered a good source to build acceptable writing credits.
Justified Text: The squaring/not squaring of text on the left and right margins. Published copy almost always uses full-justified text (both margins). Submissions guidelines for manuscripts almost always specify left justified text. Centered text (justification from the center line both left and right) is sometimes used for heads in both published and draft text, but publishers usually prefer that authors submit text with left-justified headlines. (The publisher is going to determine the design of heads.) Right-justified text is rarely used.
Juvenile: Also known as children’s books, books of this genre are separated by age range and include picture books for toddlers, young reader books, and young adult books for older children.
Kern: The part of a letter that intrudes (or appears to intrude) on the space of an adjoining letter (e.g., the T in "Title" or the j in "adjunct"). Adding space to such instances to avoid having a word appear to be jammed together is known as kerning. (Also called Letterspacing.)
Kill Fee: When an editor buys a writer’s work and then decides not to use it, the writer can be paid a kill fee. This is a negotiated fee and can range anywhere from 20 to 100 percent of the agreed fee. (The writer is then free to try to sell the work elsewhere.)
Laminate: A process in which a plastic film is bonded to a printed sheet to protect and enhance its appearance.
Landscape: Layout, as with an image, that has greater width than height and thus must be specially designed to fit on a book page that has greater height than width. (In contrast, having greater height than width is termed portrait.)
Large-Print Edition: Editions printed in larger-than-normal font size for people unable to read the smaller print.
Layout: The mock-up of a page used as a guideline for the printer.
LCCN: The Library of Congress Control Number, a numbering system established in 1901, lists forthcoming selected titles and is used by most public and private libraries, researchers, and bibliographers to determine shelf locations for these titles.
Lead: Also referred to as the hook. This is usually the first paragraph in a story or article intended to grab a reader’s attention.
Leading: The distance between lines of type, measured in points, and established during production composition.
Letterspacing: Adjustment of space between letters on a line of copy to make them appear equidistant to the eye. (Also called kerning.)
Libel: Committing injury to the reputation of another in writing or physical depiction, as in through words or images cartoons that expose a person to public hatred, shame, disgrace, or ridicule, or that leads to another person being held in ill repute.
Ligature: Forming a single character by joining two letters; used in some older forms of decorative fonts. (e.g., æ, ).
Line Art: Copy that contains only solid blacks and whites. (Contrast with continuous tone.)
List Position: Proven best-selling authors are positioned at the top of a publisher’s list. These lead titles have larger initial print runs, and more money is spent promoting them than those less-known or unproven authors positioned lower on the list.
Literary Fiction: A major fiction genre in which the works delve into the human condition in some way, are character driven, emphasize elegant language, and are not as fast paced as the books of many other genres.
Log Line: Short one- or two-sentence description of a screen script’s story.
Lowercase. Uncapitalized letters of a font. (Contrast with uppercase.)
Managing Editor: This editor oversees the preparation of the book contents up to the production phase.
Manuscript: The print versions of a work until it has been set in paginated form by in the composition phase.
Manuscript Delivery Clause: Publishers contract clause showing a description of the work and when the author will deliver the finished work.
Margin: The white space surrounding the printed columns on a page.
Marketing: The business of advertising, promoting, and selling books to buyers.
Marketing Plan: A document sometimes requested from an author by a literary agent or publisher (most often for nonfiction projects) identifying whom the targeted buying audience is, demonstrating the book’s potential for sale, and reporting the unique sales outlets the author can provide.
Marketing Questionnaire: A similar document to a marketing plan—a document responding to questions about how the author, through contacts or circumstance, can help market his/her book—but rather than be provided at the time of submission as a plan, this is provided in the form of answers to publishing house-supplied questions during the promotion campaign planning stage.
Mass Market: Mass Market titles are expected to sell tens and hundreds of thousands of books to a broad general audience. Among the better known are the mass-market paperbacks sold in stores other than bookstores, such as grocery stores and department chain stores. To maximize the offering, mass market titles are often produced in far more numbers than the publisher projects to be able to sell.
Media Kit: A grouping of promotional material used to announce a forthcoming or recently published book. It includes as many of the following as possible: press releases, flyers, letters, reviews, and author biography, with photo.
Midlist: Trade books targeted as intellectual, artistic, or literary fiction and serious nonfiction that are not earmarked to be best sellers.
Memoir: Not as inclusive as autobiography; this nonfiction category focuses on specific aspect of the author’s life and/or experiences. The focus can be someone the author knew or knows rather than the author exclusively.
Moiré: Undesirable wavy line effect of the words printed on a page. To avoid this, printers will adjust wordspacing.
Mystery: A major fiction genre that includes stories that involve a crime or a dilemma, a search, and a resolution.
Narrative: Narrative voice is another name for the person telling the story.
Niche Market: Material sought to cover a specific area of demand or subject. Health, religion, and regional books are niche market books.
Nonfiction: Fact-based writing.
Notch Binding: A type of book binding in which the untrimmed spine is notched and permeated with glue.
Novelization: The process of creating a novel based on an existing or developing movie or play.
Obligation to Publish Clause: Publishers contract clause specifying what the author can do as far as demanding that the book be published or compensation be given if the publisher fails to go to print by an the agreed-upon time.
Offprint: An excerpt from a longer work that is printed separately.
Offset Printing: A form of printing photographically or through computer-to-plate technology in comparison with digital printing, in which the transfer of printed words to paper is accomplished with ink-jet or laser printers.
On Spec: An article or feature requested by an editor without a commitment to buy it. Many beginning writers agree to write on-spec articles in the hopes of breaking in at a specific magazine or newspaper.
Option Clause: Publishers often use this in contracts to get first option on a signed author’s next book.
Orphan: A short line appearing at the bottom of a page, or a single, last word of a paragraph running on a line by itself. Printers will usually readjust wordspacing to avoid this. (Contrast with widow, a short line appearing at the top of a page.)
Outline: A succinct capsulization of a work, closely following the organization of the work itself, in which all of the main points are provided in brief form.
Overrun: A number of books printed beyond what was ordered.
Over the Transom: The procedure of sending unsolicited manuscripts to agents and publishers.
Page-Layout Computer Program: Program enabling individuals to plan pages for brochures, booklets, or flyers.
Page Proof: The result of typesetting a manuscript into the design final page layout. This is proofed for mistakes, typos, and format errors and corrected before the final printing plates are make.
Paperback: A book bound in a heavy paper cover rather than a cloth hard cover.
Payment Agreements: Two types of payment agreements are normally used by publications: payment on acceptance, where money is paid at the time of acceptance, and payments on publication, when money is paid when the piece has actually been published.
PDF: Portable Document Format is a computer program that allows a total page layout, including color, graphics, and typography. It can be read on screen with Acrobat Reader or Acrobat Exchange. The file is also printable.
Pedantic: Preachy writing, in which the author uses the plot to express a moral or personal message. It often detracts from the plot.
Perfect Binding: A type of adhesive binding for a book, in which the spine of the folded and gathered signature sheets are roughed up, the edges are infused with adhesive, and a cover (usually paper) is adhered to the pages with the adhesive.
Pen Name/Pseudonym: A name used by an author who wishes not to use his/her real name.
Permissions: Permissions obtained from authors to use their copyrighted work in a manuscript.
Plagiarism: The stealing of the identifiable recorded work or concepts of another and attempting to pass it off as your own without giving full credit to the original source.
Point: The basic measure of size for print. The generally used sizes for readability are 11 point and 12 point (although there is a wide variation on appearance size from font to font).
Point of View (POV): Especially in fiction, point of view can be written from one, two, or more character perceptions. The omniscient POV gives the reader the broadest perspective by revealing everything and using subplots. This is usually seen in epic works such as historical, fantasy, and science fiction works. The single POV is usually focused on one main character. Everything that happens in the story should in some way affect the main character.
POD: Print of Demand is a technique of printing books from digital files. It allows publishers to have no, or a minimum of few books in stock. This allows them to minimize inventory and warehousing costs and to avoid the cost of high print runs that fail. Some printing and distribution businesses are known strictly as POD producers, because they use this form of printing their books exclusively.
Portrait: Layout, as with an image, that has greater height than width. (In contrast, having greater width than height is termed landscape.)
Prepress: The preparation of a manuscript for production by a printer; also known as composition.
Preprint: An excerpt of the work printed and distributed before full publication to be used in promotion of the work.
Press Release: An (it is hoped) attention-getting announcement issued to the media about a book just released. These are accompanied by a cover letter, author bio, and copies of reviews, if any exist.
Printer’s Errors (PEs): Mistakes made during the printing process, such as inkblots or smudges on pages. Also corrections or changes made because of some error on the part of the printer. The publisher is not charged for corrections of printer’s errors. These are contrasted by AAs (author alterations) and HAs (house alterations, also termed EAs, editor’s alterations). The publisher covers the costs of correcting all of the HAs and a contracted percentage of the AAs (with the author paying for AAs that are more numerous than the allowance they have been given.)
Print Run: The number of copies of the work printed at one time.
Promotion: A key function in publishing; the process during which attempts are made to make a book desirable to the public through print media, television, and radio exposure. In some instances with big publishing houses and well-established authors, promotion can run into the millions of dollars.
Proof: The printed copy made from electronic files, plates, or negatives after the work has been typeset in final pages that is checked for mistakes, typos, and format errors before final printing.
Proofreader: Someone who reviews existing copy (called dead copy) against corrected copy (called live copy) to ensure that the corrections were made as directed and that new mistakes did not creep into the copy in the process.
Proposal: A document accompanying a query to an agent or publisher for nonfiction projects, which includes a detailed outline of the proposed book, sample chapters, often, a marketing plan, and a description of the author’s credentials or reasons why she/he is credible to write the book.
Publicist: A marketing expert who writes and sends promotional materials to newspapers and other print media about a book. A good publicist can also set up television and radio appearances and any other public appearances to help an author spread the word about his or her book.
Public Domain: Written work open to free use by the public that was never under copyright (e.g., U.S. government-created documents cannot be copyrighted) or has had its copyright expire.
Query: A short, concise letter to an agent or publisher asking if they would like to see a partial or all of your manuscript. The first paragraph is usually a couple of sentences about the manuscript and is carefully written to grab their attention. Unless sent by e-mail, it is accompanied by an SASE (self-addressed stamped envelope).
Ragged Right: Printed lines set with uneven right margin. (In contrast to full, left, or center justification.)
Reading Fees: Fees charged for reading and commenting on a manuscript.
Reconciliation to Print: Typically, the author is given a periodic (often once/year) Reconciliation to Print right in a publishing contract. At this point in time, the publisher is required to review all the print run, sales, returns, inventory, and so forth data on the author’s book and to give the author a bottom-line figure of books actually sold and subject to royalties (and make the accounting figures available to the author).
Recto: In a book or periodical, the right-hand page as the work lays open. (Contrast with verso, the left-hand page.)
Rejection Letter: Responses to queries stating lack of interest in a manuscript for representation by an agent or publication by a publisher.
Remainders: Discounted books offered in bookstores as a result of a combination of overprinting and sluggish sales. Bookstores usually reserve their regular shelves for books that are actively selling. With the cooperation of publishers, they sell remaindered books at cut rates to avoid having to return as many of them as possible to the publisher. Many publishers are turning to POD printing to try to eliminate some of the overprint problems.
Reprint: A book or other publication in its second or subsequent printing. If extensive changes have been made, it’s called, instead, an edition.
Retail: The full price on books sold directly to the public.
Returns Policy: Bookstores normally take books to sell from publishers on what is more a consignment arrangement than direct purchase. They order books on the contracted understanding that they can return the book (often by returning only the cover and destroying the book contents) for full reimbursement if the book does not sell within a time frame chosen by the bookstore. This procedure is known as a returns policy.
Review Copy: Books sent to reviewers and newspapers that prefer copies of the printed book rather than the uncorrected preproduction galleys or proofs. It is hoped they will respond favorably in prepublication reviews and that their comments can be used in promoting the book.
Rights: The bundle of separate rights in the use of a work that the author owns by having created the work and can assign to others in part or in whole. These rights include first print, movie, electronic, serialization, foreign-language publication, reprint, newspaper syndication, performance, sound and recording, book club publication, condensation, anthology, translation, and commercial exploitation rights.
River: A noticeable streak of white space running in apparent joined form through several lines of type, caused by the pattern of spacing of the words. The printer usually will adjust spacing to correct this.
Roman: Normal type, as distinguished from boldface (appears darker on the page) and italic (slanted writing, similar to cursive).
Romance: A major fiction genre, which usually includes highly formulaic modern or period love stories, always with a happy ending.
Royalties Clause: Publishers contract clause defining the payments paid by the publisher to the author for granting the publisher the right to publish the work.
Run In: Merging a paragraph or line with the preceding one.
Running Heads: Slugs set at the top of printed publication pages to identify the chapter and author and/or the work title.
Saddle Stitching: A method of binding in which threads or staples at the spine hold together a pamphlet or magazine.
Sample Chapters: Often requested by publishers and agents during the manuscript submission phase; sample chapters usually comprise the first three chapters of a manuscript.
SASE: A self-addressed stamped envelope, which should always accompany snail-mailed queries to agents and publishers.
Science Fiction: A major fiction genre that has a strong technological/scientific base and is futuristic.
Self-Publish: An individual handles the writing, editing, and virtually all steps necessary in printing, marketing, and distributing his/her book.
Self-Review: Scrutiny of manuscript text by the author.
Serialization: An arrangement in which successive parts of a work are printed in a magazine before or after print publication.
Series: A group of more than one book on the same topic using the same characters. Series are often written in the science fiction, fantasy, and hero-driven mystery genres.
Sheet-fed Press: A printing press in which sheets feed into the machine for printing. Contrast to a web-fed press, where a roll of paper is fed into the machine.
Sidebar: Used in magazine articles, this is a short addition to an article, with information pertinent to the article. It could be a short bulleted list or tips. For example, an article about Mexico City might include a list of top-notch hotels in that city in a sidebar.
Signature: Large sheets of paper in regular, Web press printing, in which patterns of pages in books are printed in multiples of four, eight, sixteen, or thirty-two, so that when folded and trimmed, they make up the proper order of the pages in the book.
Simultaneous Submission: Sending out queries to more than one agent or publisher at the same time.
Slant: The angle of treatment or perception used in writing articles. Two writers submitting articles on a well-known athlete could have different angles. One might submit a piece on how the athlete is viewed by his family and friends. Another might submit a piece on how the athlete is viewed by his teammates and coaches.
Slush Pile: The collection of unsolicited manuscripts sent to agents and publishers.
Spine: The back panel of a book that covers the thickness of the book and that is showing when the book is shelved with other books.
Submission: Query letter, manuscript, and other material sent to someone as part of an offer of a work for publication.
Subscript: A smaller-font numeral, letter, or symbol that prints partly below the baseline.
Subsidiary Rights: The range of licensing of book rights for such things as motion pictures, book clubs, and products such as games and toys.
Subsidy Press: Publishing companies offering publication services, with costs of any services being shared by the press and the author.
Superscript: A smaller-font numeral, letter, or symbol that prints partly above the midpoint of a line of type. (Used mostly for footnote markers.)
Suspense: A major fiction genre in which suspense is used to keep the reader engaged. It includes such other major genres as mystery, crime, detective, espionage, thriller, and action/adventure.
Syndication: Newspaper columns sold to appear in a number of newspapers or periodicals simultaneously.
Synopsis: Not to be mistaken for an outline, the synopsis is a condensed version of the book, which is submitted to agents and/or publishers during the submissions process. It sometimes is as short as one paragraph (back cover blurb), but it usually is two or more pages in length. A synopsis normally covers the key points in the plot, including the beginning, middle, and end.
Table of Contents: Usually provided for nonfiction books only, this is a front-matter page or pages indexing the chapter titles as well as the other section titles by page number.
Target Audience: Readers who are assumed to be interested in a book’s particular subject matter.
Tear Sheets: Also called clips, these are facsimile examples of a writer’s published work. Some markets require these before they will consider adopting the work of a new writer and/or giving writing assignments to a new writer.
Thick Space: A small space, defined as one-third of an em, added between characters to either help fully justify a line or to make characters appear to be equidistant to the eye.
Thin Space: A small space, defined a one-fifth of an em, added between characters. Also called hair space.
Title Page: Odd-numbered page at the beginning of the book that gives the title, subtitle, author’s name, publisher, and place of publication.
Trade Paperback: Considered quality paperbacks, these books are larger, more esthetic, and expected to last longer than mass-market paperbacks.
Traditional Publisher: A publisher that is selective in its acquisitions and covers the costs of producing, promoting, and distributing books and journals.
Trim Size: The dimensions in inches of a published book or periodical. Standard sizes include 5 x 8 and 6 x 9.
Typesetter: The person or machine that sets the type for the finished book. Also called the compositor.
Unagented Manuscript: Manuscripts not represented by agents, which are sent out directly to publishers by authors.
Unsolicited Manuscript: A manuscript sent to agents or publishers that was not requested.
Uppercase: Capitalized letters of a font. (Contrasted with lowercase.)
URL: Term used to identify a Web address. Many publishers of books and magazines along with agents have Web sites. Each has their own URL, where an individual can reach their Web site.
Vanity Publisher: Publishing in which the author pays all of the costs of production, marketing, and distribution.
Verso: In a book or periodical, the left-hand page as the work lays open. (Contrast with recto, the right-hand page.)
Web-fed Press: A printing press which is fed by a roll of paper. Contrast with a sheet-fed press, where sheets of paper are fed into the machine for printing.
Wholesaler: A company that serves booksellers and is a go-between from the publisher to the bookseller. Wholesale companies purchase large numbers of books for booksellers to choose from. Distributors work on behalf of publishers and may buy from wholesalers.
Withdrawal Letter: A letter sent from the author to other agents/publishers then considering the book to withdraw the book from consideration, usually when an agent or publisher has contracted it.
WGAE: Writers Guild of America (East) (http://www.wgaeast.org/) is a major writers labor union.
Widow: a short line appearing at the top of a page. Printers will usually readjust wordspacing to avoid this. (Contrast with orphan, A short line appearing at the bottom of a page, or a single, last word of a paragraph running on a line by itself.)
Word Count: Estimate of manuscript length in words, usually taken from computer program "properties" counts. Most publishers have Web sites where an author can find the specific publisher’s submission guidelines, which would include an acceptable or desirable word count range for specific genres of fiction and categories of nonfiction.
Work for Hire: Work commissioned by a publisher and paid with a set fee instead of for royalties. The author writes exactly what the publisher asks for, and the publisher owns the copyright.
Writer’s Block: A period of a experiencing a mental condition of a failure to be able to progress with writing on a work.
Writer’s Guidelines: Every print source has specific guidelines that writers should adhere to if they desire to be published in it. Most publishers are willing to send out copies of their guidelines to a writer who requests it.
Young Adult: A major fiction genre that covers the upper age range of books for children and can begin for twelve year olds.
