Glossary

Publishing has a lot of jargon. This page explains the terms you'll meet in these docs, in your contract and in conversations with your editor.

A–C

• Advance: A payment made to the author before the book is published. It is "advanced" against future royalties, so you receive no further royalties until the book has earned back the advance. You don't have to pay it back if the book sells fewer copies.
• Back matter: Pages after the main text, such as acknowledgements, notes, bibliography and index.
• Blurb: The short description on the back cover or inside flap, written to make readers want the book. Not the same as a synopsis.
• Copy edit: A line-by-line edit for grammar, spelling, consistency, facts and house style. Comes after the structural edit.
• Copyright: The legal right to your work. In a traditional deal you keep the copyright and license publishing rights to the publisher.
• Cover price (MRP): The retail price printed on the book. Print royalties are often a percentage of this.

D–M

• Distribution: Getting books from the warehouse to bookshops, online retailers and libraries.
• Ebook: The digital edition, sold through platforms such as Amazon Kindle and Google Play Books.
• Front matter: Pages before the main text: title page, copyright page, dedication, contents.
• House style: The publisher's rules for spelling, punctuation, numbers and dates, applied during the copy edit.
• ISBN: International Standard Book Number. A unique 13-digit number for each edition and format of a book. The publisher registers it.
• Manuscript: The text of your book before it is typeset.

N–R

• Net receipts: The money the publisher actually receives from a sale, after retailer and distributor discounts. Ebook royalties are usually a percentage of this.
• Proofs: Typeset pages, laid out as they will appear in print, sent to the author for final checking.
• Proofread: The final check of the proofs for typing and layout errors.
• Print run: The number of copies printed at one time.
• Rights: The permissions you license to the publisher, for example to publish in print in English in India for a set number of years. Other rights (translation, audio, film) may be kept by you or shared.
• Royalty: The author's share of the money from each copy sold, usually a percentage. See Publishing models.
• Royalty statement: A report from the publisher showing how many copies sold and the royalties earned in a period.

S–Z

• Simultaneous submission: Sending the same manuscript to several publishers at once. We accept these; tell us if you get another offer.
• Structural edit: Big-picture editorial feedback on plot, structure, pacing, character or argument. Also called a developmental edit.
• Synopsis: A summary of the whole book, including the ending, written for editors. See Writing a synopsis.
• TDS: Tax Deducted at Source. Indian tax that the publisher deducts from royalty payments and pays to the government on your behalf. You can claim it against your income tax.
• Typesetting: Laying out the text on the page with the chosen fonts, margins and spacing, ready to print.
• Word count: The number of words in your manuscript, used to estimate the length and cost of the book.