Mslexia

Mslexia, the magazine for women who write | www.mslexia.co.uk

Essentials

PUBLISHERS' JARGON

Agent: represents an author’s work to the publisher, negotiates the contract, and acts as a liaison through the publishing process

Advance: non-returnable payment from publisher to author in lieu of an equivalent amount of royalty payments

Copy editor: the person who checks accuracy, spelling and house style of a book

Copyright: the intellectual property rights that you can sell to a publisher or editor. In most cases, the rights offered are dictated by the publisher; new writers rarely have much leeway to negotiate. A bewildering array of rights include, for example: all rights, worldwide rights, electronic rights, English rights, first serial rights, one-time rights, and reprint rights

Earn out (verb): to sell enough copies to earn the advance against royalties.

Editor: the person in a publishing firm who acquires the book, works with the author to polish the manuscript, and champions the title through the sales and marketing process at a publishing house

Imprint: the name of the publisher, nowadays usually a brand-name (e.g. Chatto & Windus) within a large publishing conglomerate (e.g. Random House)

List position: where in the publisher’s pecking order a title ranks

Publisher: the one who controls the purse strings of the media outlet that purchases, promotes and distributes an author’s words

Royalty: percentage of (typically) recommended retail price that is paid to the author

BOOKS

A Format: book measuring 178mm x 111mm, typical of mass market paperbacks

B Format: book measuring 198mm x 126mm, typical of literary paperbacks and non fiction. ‘Trade paperbacks’ are increasingly considered as a less expensive alternative to hardcover publication

Blad:sample pages of text and illustrations, where appropriate, wrapped inside a proof of the cover, used for marketing the finished book

Blurb: brief exaggerated description of book on the back cover of paperback

Book proof: advance copy of the uncorrected text of a book, used by sales team and sometimes sent out early to reviewers

Bulk: the thickness of a book

C Format: any size other than A or B, usually used to describe the same-sized paperback version of the hardback Dumpbin: presentation stand for 20-40 books, used for point-of-sale merchandising

Extent: the number of pages in a book

Folio: the page number

Format: the shape of a book

Half-title: the first page, with the title and sometimes a blurb or quotes from reviewers

House style: rules devised by publishers to ensure consistency in how numbers, titles, abbreviations and the like are presented

Jacket:the cover of a book

Leaf: a page of a book comprising recto (right-hand page) and verso (left-hand page)

Manuscript: typescript of a written work

Perfect binding: where pages are glued, rather than sewn, together and fall to bits when forcefully splayed

Proof: pre-printed version of a book or illustration used for final check of accuracy before printing

Returns: books returned unsold to publisher

Running head: printing at the top of each page, typically the book’s title on the left-hand page, the chapter title on the right

Title page: typically the second leaf in a book, where title, author’s name and publisher are displayed

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