Dictionary of Publishing Terms

Advance: Funds paid to author before publication. Different houses pay it in different increments, i.e., one-half upon acceptance, one-half upon delivery of final manuscript. Royalties earned must first cover this advance, then any excess royalties are paid to author, usually semi-annually.

ARC: Acronym for advance reading copy. Generally published in galley form, with or without actual cover art, sent to reviewers and booksellers well in advance of publication.

Category romance: Romance novel published as part of a series or line.

Copy editing: Correcting errors in punctuation, grammar, and style.

Cover art: Artwork on all outside surfaces of book: front, back, and spine.

Distributors: Entity which warehouses books and sends them to accounts. May be direct source for small accounts and/or outlets to resupply large accounts who may have ordered initial supply directly from publisher. Example: Ingrams, Baker & Taylor.

Dump: Cardboard display to carry author's book, generally located at the end of an aisle. Gives book greater visibility, likely leading to increased sales.

Earn-out: Actual dollar amount required to cover the advance paid to author. To calculate, multiply cover price of book by number of books sold, then times the royalty rate. After the advance is covered, the author earns the additional royalties, usually paid twice a year.

Galley: Mock-up of a book to show how it will look when printed. Not the final format; changes may still be made. Different houses produce different galley formats, some loose, some bound and with a reproduction of the actual cover. Generally contains production information.

Genre: Type of novel, i.e., romance, horror, sci-fi, etc.

ISBN: International Standard Book Number, unique to each book, appears on copyright page.

Joint accounting: With multi-book contracts, author may receive advance on all the books and is thus required to earn back the advance before any royalties are paid on the first book, even if first book earned out.

Lead time: Time lapse between purchase of manuscript and release date or printed book.

Line editing: Editorial troubleshooting; looking at the big picture of the manuscript. Line editor will look at such concerns as whether characters sound like real people, if tone is consistent, are there plot holes, are explanations sufficient? When in doubt, editor will query author on missing or inaccurate information, awkward phrasing, etc.

List: Publisher's roster of books to be released at one given time, say monthly, fall list, etc. Books on list have differing positions, lead title, etc., and get differing quality of covers, levels of promotion, etc.

Mainstream: Not strictly a romance; definition differs from house to house but generally more complex story, subplots, etc., not necessarily a happy ending.

P&L: Profit and Loss statement. Particularly with single-title books, one must be produced by editor for each anticipated purchase, detailing cost of production (including author advance) and expected profit. Critical part of purchasing decision and toughest to figure on new authors.

Partial: Synopsis and first three chapters. New authors must, as a rule, submit entire manuscript before editor will make purchasing decision. Established authors will prepare differing types of proposals, though this is the most common.

Print run: Number of copies printed of each book. Number shipped may be different, depending upon the house policy about warehousing.

Pub date: Publication date, month and year book is published. Different from release date, generally a few weeks earlier.

Release date: Date (approximate) when book is on shelves; generally a few weeks before publication date.

Reserves: Since most publishers allow books to be returned by booksellers (though that's changing, but slowly), the house will reserve a certain percentage of royalties based on anticipated returns. At some point, author is to be paid based upon final sales figures, but that may be quite some time in coming, differing from house to house.

Returns: Books returned to the publisher. Author is paid not on books shipped but books sold and not returned.

Revisions: Changes to the manuscript performed at editor's request. Sometimes advance payments are predicated upon receipt of revised manuscript.

Sales rep: Sales team member working for publisher, generating orders from within territory. Frequently calls on bookstores in person.

Scraps: Books never shipped from warehouse; often sold to discounters. Not counted against author royalties as stripped books are.

Sell-In: Period when sales reps solicit orders for your book. Approximately 5-6 months before publication date.

Sell-through: Figure calculated as a percentage of books shipped which are actually sold. Critical in obtaining future contracts; also critical in ordering decisions by distributors and booksellers.

Series (or line): Novels grouped by type, word count, cover art, etc., under umbrella of one company. Examples are Silhouette Romance, Desire, Intimate Moments, Special Edition, Love Inspired; Harlequin Presents, Temptation, Intrigue, American, Love and Laughter, etc.

Single-title: Not part of a line or series. A book which stands alone.

Slush pile: Unsolicited manuscripts received by publisher.

Stripped books: Used to calculate author's sell-through. Books not sold will have covers stripped and returned to publisher as proof that they did not sell. Author receives no royalties on these.

Synopsis: Summary of book's plot and main characters, to be used by editor to assess it for purchase; may vary from one or two pages to one page per ten thousand words (rough rule of thumb.) Editors differ on length desired.

Tip sheets: Guidelines from publishers regarding word count, subject matter, etc., available upon request, with SASE.

Wholesalers: Distributors who stock smaller accounts, such as convenience stores, supermarkets, drug chains, discount stores. Example: Anderson News, which handles many thousand accounts, and Anderson Merchandising, which stocks Walmarts. May use trucks to deliver books and magazines to accounts.

Word count: Number of words in manuscript, determined by standard format which produces approximately 250 words per page.