Publishing jargon! Key terms of the publishing world!
Publishing can be a confusing industry if you’re not used to it. You may come across some terms you are not aware of, so here is a helpful guide to publishing jargon!
Publishing Jargon
Publishing can be a confusing industry if you’re not used to it. You may come across some terms you are not aware of, so here is a helpful guide to publishing jargon!
Audience – Who will be reading your book.
Contract – The document you signed at the start of your publishing journey.
Distributors – A book distributor will distribute your book to customers and bookstores. Wholesalers are very similar.
Commissioning Editor – The team who decide which books we publish. You probably spoke to them before signing the book contract you have with us. Often confused with managers. Editorial only deal with authors and books before they sign a book deal.
Format – Paperback, eBook and audiobooks etc.
Genre – what category your book falls under, such as romance, biography, etc.
House style - A set of rules about what spellings and style of writing must be used when producing documents for a particular company.
ISBN: International Standard Book Number: a set of numbers used to identify a particular book and show that it is different from other books
Jacket: Short for the book jacket, the cover of your book.
Lorem ipsum: Lorem ipsum is a placeholder; the text is often used to demonstrate the visual form of a document or a typeface without giving specific content.
Nielsen's – The largest book database in the UK. This often filters through to and is used by bookshops and wholesalers.
PLR: Public Lending Right (PLR) is a legal right to payment from the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport funding for eligible book contributors when their books are borrowed from public libraries.
Royalties: A payment made to writers related to book sales.
Sale or return: An arrangement by which a retailer pays only for goods sold, returning those that are unsold to the wholesaler or manufacturer, also abbreviated to S or R.
Track Changes: The Track Changes function in Word allows you to keep a record of amendments made to a document.
Verso: A left-hand page towards the front or back page of an open book, this often has information about copyright, year of print, the ISBN and other important information.
Wholesalers: See the above distributor definition.
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