Popular Book Publishing Terms
Acknowledgments 1)Recognition or honor given to people who have influenced the book being published or who have made a difference in the life of the author. 2) Section of a book containing such recognition.
Back Matter (End Matter (EM, em) Counterpart of front matter. Any material, such as appendixes, notes, references, glossary or index, coming after the chapters of a book
Bleed
To bleed means to extend outside the normal trim area of a book's page. A bleed
is a bar, illustration, rule or other element that extends outside the trim
area. Such elements have ink that is visible on the edge of the page in the
bound book.
Blogging
A blog is an online journal (a shortened form of Web log). Blogging is writing
in one's blog.
Content Editor
Person who edits the content (subject matter) of a book in addition to its form
(sentence structure). A content editor often recommends substantive corrections
to a manuscript, such as those affecting presentation, veracity, relevance and
so forth.
Copyeditor (CE, Copy Editor)
Person who edits or
redacts copy (manuscript material) submitted by an author. Such editing has the
goal of correcting grammar irregularities and inconsistencies and of correcting
punctuation, spelling, usage and style.
Copyright (Copyright Page, Copyright Notice)
Ownership of intellectual property such as printed matter, protected by law.
The right to copy, repurpose or publish
Cover Design
Aesthetic layout on the covers of a book, usually intended to be attractive or
alluring to the eye.ontent of the
copyrighted medium.
Design (Book and Cover)
Layout,
selection of font and font size and typesetting of a book. See Cover Design.
Distributor
Company, group or individual who sells products or services to retailers
instead of to consumers.
Formatting
1) Process by which a design team lays out a manuscript to create book pages.
2) Text effect applied to characters to make them appear bold, italic, sheared
or otherwise.
Ghostwriter
Person contracted by an author or publisher to write or cowrite a book. A
ghostwriter's work often goes uncredited upon publication.
Grayscale
Refers to images (which may originally have been represented in color) that are
composed only of black and white and the gray shades in-between.
Hardcover Book
Book
that has cloth material glued to a type of pasteboard material, forming a
durable cover and spine. Reference books and lending library books are often
bound in this way.
Interior graphics
Pictures, diagrams,
figures and other graphical items that appear within the contents of a book.
International Standard Book Number (ISBN)
Unique 13-digit number (10 or 13 digits prior to 2007) that identifies a
version of a book.
Keyword
Important word or phrase that is input to conduct searches on online search
engines and databases to find all related results.
Literary
Agent
Person who functions as intermediary for an author in transactions with the
publisher.
Makeready Stage
Point in the printing process when a publication is ready to be printed.
Manuscript
Complete version of a book (often as an electronic text file) as prepared by
the author. The term manuscript refers to both textual and graphic elements of
the book. Editors and authors make preproduction book alterations to the
manuscript. The finalized manuscript is used to produce a set of book pages.
Marketing
Promotional and advertising efforts to sell books
Networking
Expanding one's social network or sphere of influence by initiating mutually
advantageous new relationships with people.
Niche
Term referring to a specialized target market characterized by a particular
interest, topic or subject. Niches are usually potentially profitable, but
depend an inordinate amount on the loyalty of the audience to whom it is
catering.
Nonexclusive Contract
Legal agreement in
which the publisher does not exercise exclusive rights over the materials
published in the author's book.
Online Bookseller (Online Retailer)
Bookstore on the Web that sells books and other publications to the customer at
retail or discounted prices.
Online Marketing
Advertising, selling or dispensing products through the Internet.
Page
Proofs
Printed out typeset material that looks just like the final book pages. In page
proofs figures and other displays are where they will appear in the final book.
Page proofs contain running heads and page numbers, and can be used for
indexing.
PDF (Portable Document Format)
Adobe Systems file
format that can be precisely reproduced on different systems. PDF files are
often sent to a printer.
Permission
1) Agreement from a copyright holder that permits the reproduction or
publication of copyrighted material. 2) Process of securing agreements from
copyright holder.
Plot
Flow or succession of actions in a story.
Podcast
Audio broadcast available on the Web to the public for free downloading to a
personal computer or a digital audio player. Despite its name, a podcast may be
played through a variety of digital audio software and hardware. Use is not
limited to the iPod brand products developed by Apple.
Point of View
Story's narrative style. A style in which the author is first-person (tells the
story as a character using "I"), third-person (portrays the feelings,
thoughts and ideas of one character, but is not actually involved in the story)
or omniscient (an uninvolved third-person perspective that knows everything
about the characters involved and can share all things with the reader).
Print-on-Demand (POD)
Publishing arrangement in which books are printed only as orders are placed.
Print-Ready
Final PDF files of a book that have been flight-checked and are ready to go to
the printer. See also PDF (Portable Document File).
Proofreading
Readthrough of typeset material to ensure that content matches the book's
manuscript. Incorrect grammar, punctuation, spelling or usage, is queried to
the editor.
Publication Date
Official date when a book is to be released to the public.
Publicist
Professional who promotes a book, often by generating free advertising. A press
agent.
Return on Investment (ROI)
Amount of profit made after investment costs and other costs have been
recouped.
Return
Book returned to and refunded by the publisher after failing to sell on the
bookstore shelf. Only the front covers of mass-market paperbacks need be
returned to qualify for the refund.
Review
Professional book reviewer's published opinion of a particular book in a
periodical or online.
Royalty
Payment to a book's author that is usually a percentage of sales revenue.
Self-Publishing
System of book production in which the author generally assumes the financial
risk of publication. The self-publishing model circumvents the need for an
author to contract with a publishing house to ensure publication of the book. A
self-published book is also usually distributed and marketed by its author. See
also Subsidy Publishing; Supported Self-Publishing.
Sell Sheet
Concise, one-page document (resembling a flyer or brochure more than a press
release) that provides details about a book.
Subsidiary Rights
Rights acquired by a publisher for resale, translation into foreign languages
and other reuse of a book's content.
Subsidy Publishing
A subsidy publisher shares publishing costs with the author. The publisher
typically markets the book through retailers. An author must bear at least some
of the cost of copyediting, typesetting, proofreading, indexing and printing
the book. Some subsidy publishers require an author to purchase a large number
of copies of the book to cover the costs of its initial publication. Compare
Self-Publishing; Supported Self-Publishing.
Supported Self-Publishing
Method of self-publishing, through which an author has access to many of the
services found in a traditional publishing house (e.g., editorial services,
marketing copywriters, Internet sales) provided through an upfront cost or
available à la carte. Compare Self-Publishing; Subsidy Publishing.
Table of Contents
This section, always called "Contents," appears in the book's front
matter. It lists the book's chapters and their opening page numbers.
Target Audience
Specific group of people whom a book, series or genre targets. Book marketing
tends to be concentrated on the target audience.
Teleseminar
Seminar, lecture or speech broadcast on television and sometimes on the
Internet.
Trade (Mainstream, Traditional Publishing)
Traditional way of publishing a book in which an author must find a literary
agent or a publisher willing to review the manuscript.
Trim Size
Final physical dimensions of a book page after the book is bound and trimmed.
Typesetting
Formatting a book on a computer so as to result in the desired layout, font and
appearance on a printed page.
Unsolicited Manuscript
Manuscript sent to a publisher who did not request it.
Upload
Move file(s) from a computer to a server, network or the Internet. Move file(s)
from a diskette, CD or memory stick to a computer. Up implies moving to a
larger device. Compare Download.
Vanity Press (Vanity Publisher)
Publisher who
publishes books financed solely by their authors. The author sometimes retains
the copyright.
Virtual Book Tour (VBT)
Advertisement strategy centered on publicizing a book on the Internet,
including ads on Web sites that the target audience frequents and book
give-aways.
Webinar
Seminar broadcast on the Web. Like normal seminars, webinars are interactive.
Wholesaler
Company, group or individual who purchases high volumes of books from a
publisher at deep discounts and sells them to retailers at midlevel discount.
Word of Mouth
Free advertising for a book after its release through satisfied readers who
recommend the book to others. The consumer base creates a buzz that in turn
creates publicity.
Contact us today if you’d like
further explanation of any of these publishing terms or if you want help
publishing your own book.
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