20 Book Publishing Terms to Know

YouTube Bestie and Fabulous Book Launcher's client Efren Delgado was dropping some major publishing lingo my way, and it triggered the idea for this video because there's a lot of words used in the publishing world that you will need to know as an author. So if you're wondering if you've got the vocabulary needed to communicate in the book publishing world, well then this video is for you. Hey there. I'm Julie the Book Broad author and founder of Book Launchers, a fabulous sequel Self publishing services company Backlist Blurb Boilerplate Advance Fair Use, Galley Copy oh my. There are so many words that get tossed all around in the publishing world, and you might feel really out of place when you first step in. And for the most part, that's totally fine. The definition of word is only a Google search away these days, so you're not really required to study before you join the world of authors. That said, if you're like me and you feel a lot more comfortable if you know what the heck people are talking about, well, let's start at the end of the Alphabet and work our way backwards with some words that you may not know, but you probably will hear Work for Hire now this is essentially what we do at Book Launchers. You hire us, we do as much of the work as we can, including in some cases, ghost writing the book, and then you keep the rights. Typically in industry use, the phrase refers to writers, but really, anyone that you pay to work on your book while you retain all rights is work for hire. Trade Book Trade books are books that are written and published for general audiences. These are typically the books you see at bookstores and libraries. They're not academic books, rare books, or specialized books intended for niche readership. A trade book can cover a wide range of genres with fiction and nonfiction. Although in fiction most books are trade books, whereas that's not true in nonfiction. Slush pile I just like that word. It's used to describe the gigantic pile of unsolicited pitches and manuscripts that an agent or editor has in their office or their computer. The reason traditional publishing is such a slow and painful process to go through for many authors is getting your manuscripts out of that slush pile and into the hands of someone that's excited enough to want to work with you is tough work. Reprint Rights the rights to republish a book after its initial printing. This can be something that's negotiated in some contracts, or if you self publish something you sell later on. I love owning my rights. Query this is typically written as a letter and it's the brilliant concept that sells your book idea to an editor or an agent. In other words, something us self publishing authors don't need. But if it gets a nod, then you'll need to create a book proposal, which is mostly for us nonfiction authors. It may contain a chapter or two as an example, but it's rarely the entire manuscript. It's the summary of a proposed book that you submit that usually includes things like cover letter, an overview of your book, maybe a sample chapter, the outline, and most importantly, the thing publishers most care about, the marketing plan and the author information showing why you are the one to write it and how you're going to sell the book next term. POD or Print on Demand pod. This is how most self published books get printed these days. It's different than what it was in the past when you'd have to do a giant print run and store your books in your garage. Now the books get printed upon order. Although truthfully, that's not totally true. Typically you'll find there's a stock of your book being printed so that orders can ship out really fast. You'll especially find this to be true if you make a small correction or change to your book and someone a week or even a month later, depending on your sell through rate is still getting the old version. You definitely see this with hardcover books on Amazon because Amazon will have a stock of your hardcover book. They clear out and they take your price from $24.99 and chop it to 5.99 and you're going what the heck Amazon. But Print on Demand is essentially they're printing it on order and it's far better than turning your garage into a warehouse or needing self storage for your books platform. I know my YouTube besties like Efren, Sean Hayes, Quizmaster China, Rachel Robertson, Mike Herd. Go besties, go. I know you all know what a platform is because we talk about it all the time here on Book Launchers tv. So if you don't know, you'd better make sure you subscribe to this channel and turn notifications on so so we can make sure you're educated and ready to crush the world. As an author, your platform is essentially anyone in your audience, including newsletter, social media, speaking engagements, your network, like your associations and groups that support you and your book. Pen name. Okay, you know what this is, right? It's your fake name that you write under to hide your identity or separate your brands. What number are we on? Hmm. Okay, I've totally lost count. Is this 10? This might be 10. Okay, let's call it 10. If I'm wrong, go ahead and tell me in the comments. Maybe you've been keeping count. Option clause. That's what we'll do next. Option clause. This is something to watch out for if you do get a traditional deal. This is a clause in your contract that gives the publisher the right to publish an author's next book. It can lock you in when you don't want it to, so. So read it carefully. Narrative nonfiction. A narrative presentation of actual events, also called creative nonfiction. I think this is where people get a little confused with fiction and nonfiction. Actually, fiction can be seen as the creative writing, whereas nonfiction can be seen as how to and educational. However, there's a big world of creative nonfiction, which is essentially storytelling. It's where truth meets a well told story. Memoir is a category of narrative nonfiction. Logline. This is essentially what we call the hook of a book. I first heard the term when I was in la and people would speak to the logline as a summary of a TV program, movie or book that captures the main conflict of the story. It's stated in a way that generates an emotional response that makes you intrigued or interested. Of course, with nonfiction, we generally lean on this being the outcome of the outcome for your reader name applied to a publisher's specific line of books. I mean, in self publishing you can be fancy and say your publishing company, like mine. Stickhorse Publishing is an imprint. Officially though, it's used for big houses like Penguin to use for their different kind of books. They have Avery and Berkeley and Writer's Digest books and Penguin Classics. I mean, look at their website, they've got a lot of imprints. Ghostwriter. So you know what this is, right? Someone writes your book, an article or content for you, and your name goes on it. Sometimes you may put the writer on as a feature too, but in self publishing and with book launchers, that's not how we roll. You are the author and the writer helps you get it done. Genre. This is one that gets thrown around a lot. So I figured it's a good one for the list. Essentially, this is where your book gets classified. Like if you were in a grocery store and you know this is where you find it. Like fruit versus baked goods versus dairy. Except we're talking fiction versus nonfiction and then drilling down further into horror versus romance or finance versus fitness. Galleys. A galley copy is basically an arc, an advanced reader copy. It's not a final version, but you want to get it out for blurbs and endorsements. It often will say galley on it. For our authors, we generally get the final version or use the almost final version for this. I mean, when you self publish you really want your best foot forward for endorsements and blurbs, so we prefer to use the best possible version. But galleys still do exist less and less in print form, though most publishers have moved away from that or are moving towards ebook versions to save money and maybe some trees. Fair use A term from copyright law that allows you to use quotes or images from other rights holders for the purpose of commentary and education primarily. We've talked a lot about that before, so I'll link to a video for you on that at the end I think. Right. 18. We'll call it 18. Blurb the copy the words the copy that is written on book covers or book dust jackets promoting the book and the author. Featuring testimonials from book reviewers or well known people in the book's field. Backlist I've talked about this in regards to audiobooks because there isn't a big backlist of books like you would find on Amazon for print or ebooks. But in industry terms, you'll find that this is in reference to books not published during the current year but are still for sale from a publisher. Advance Cha Ching my friends. This is something self publishing authors are getting via Kickstarter campaigns. Oh yeah, but in industry terms, this is money you're paid prior to writing a book that is an advance against future royalties. You'll usually get this in chunks. Maybe one chunk when you sign, one chunk when you deliver the manuscript, and maybe when it publishes. It varies depending on the contracts. All right, I think that was 20, but I did lose count. And of course I left off a lot of words like content editors, developmental editing, line editing, copy editing, a lot of editing. Because I feel like we've covered these topics extensively, like in this editing breakdown video. But if you're comfortable with all of those editing terms, this over here is the video I promised on Fair Use. That's pretty useful too. And because this is one where I could send you to a dozen videos, let me also give you a shout out to this one on Platform right over here. Platform building for Authors. All three are guaranteed good watching, so click on over and let me know when you're there.