"What Does That Mean?" A Not At All Complete List of Publishing Industry Jargon And Terms Explained

Agent: A literary agent represents authors and promotes their manuscripts to publishers with a view to gaining a publishing deal. They negotiate contracts, manage rights, and advocate for their clients.

Publisher: Both a name for the publishing company and usually the senior manager of an imprint or publishing house, who leads its direction.

Imprint: An identity within a publishing house, sometimes quite separate to that of the publisher, which focuses on a particular section of the market, for example, literary fiction or business guides.

Acquisitions: A meeting at a publishing house responsible for acquiring new manuscripts.

Commissioning Editor: An in–house publishing professional that assesses submissions, leads the acquisitions process, negotiates contracts, and works with authors on refining manuscripts.

Copyeditor: Responsible for editing manuscripts for grammar, punctuation, spelling, consistency, clarity, and adherence to style guides before publication.

Proofreader: Checks final novel proofs on a very close level for errors in grammar, punctuation, and formatting before publication.

NOTE: Your novel will go through editorial processes with each of these three, separate editorial professionals, and at least two phases with the commissioning editor (usually, a big, high-level 'structural edit' and a more prose-focused 'line edit').

Developmental Editor: An editor who provides feedback and guidance to authors on improving their manuscript. This is usually someone working in a more supportive or mentoring capacity, rather than someone in–house at a publishing company.

Publicist: Promotes the author and their book to the media, organizes book events, publicity campaigns and press. This is often your second most important relationship at the publisher after the commissioning editor.

Royalties: the percentage of book sales revenue paid to the author as compensation for each copy sold, outlined in the publishing contract. There are industry standards which your agent will know and negotiate around.

Advance: A sum of money paid to the author by the publisher upon signing the publishing contract. Note that the advance has to be earned back from future royalties before new royalties are paid. Most novels never earn back their advance!

ISBN (International Standard Book Number): A unique numerical identifier assigned to each edition and variation of a book for sales verification and tracking.

ARC (Advance Reader Copy): Copies of a book distributed to reviewers, booksellers, and media pre–publication for reviews and publicity. A very important part of the pre-publication process!

Hardcover: A book bound with a stiff cover typically made of cardboard and covered with cloth or paper, known for prestige and higher price points.

Trade Paperback: A format of book typically larger in size than mass–market paperbacks and often used for new releases or literary works.

Mass–Market Paperback: A smaller, more affordable paperback format.

E–book: Digital version of a book, available for download to electronic readers and phones.

Self–Publishing: Authors publishing and distributing their books without traditional publishing house involvement, usually through online platforms.

Copyright: Legal protection granted to authors for their original works, preventing unauthorized reproduction, and assuring ownership of rights for specified periods of time (often very long).

Manuscript: the completed text of a book or document submitted by an author for publication. This used to refer to the paper pages of such a manuscript, but now is usually an electronic file that goes back and forth between writer, agent and editors.

Pitch: A short description of a book, either a sentence or a paragraph long, which sells the book’s core concept and its genre fit to an agent, publisher, bookseller, etc.

Synopsis: A concise summary of the plot, characters, and themes of a book, used for pitching to agents or publishers. It is usually 1–2 pages long.

Blurb: A brief endorsement of a book written by a published author, reviewer or celebrity for promotional use on a book cover or in marketing materials. Sometimes, people also call the pitch a blurb. Confusing, right?

How To Write A Novel Chapter By Chapter available here: https://www.amazon.com/How-Write-Novel-Chapter-Outlining-ebook/dp/B0DJ8TMVWL?ref_=ast_author_mpb

You can also check out our other services, Mentoring and Manuscript Review, on the links above.