The Universal Language of Publishing: What You Need To Know Now

Understanding Publishing Terms and Language

Who knows what a Chapbook is? How about what a Backlist is?

What are an author’s subsidiary rights?

It pays to know the terms your agent or publisher will use when dealing with your book and you. Many terms are familiar, such as ‘agent’. We all know what an agent is.

We all know what an advance is. Well, we think we know. I’m pretty sure many of you are not aware of how an advance works.

Writer’s Digest recently sent out a list of 100 Common Publishing Terms and I thought I would share a few of them here. You are welcome to visit the entire list at the link above, for the rest.

I will add more information where I think it’s needed, but if you have questions about any of these terms, or about publishing in general, please leave a comment and we’ll do our best to answer your questions.

Agent

I’m starting with this term because a number of folks have contacted me about finding an agent, recently.

The agent is a person who is your “liaison” as Writer’s Digest says, between you and your publisher. Often, an agent will suggest editing changes or ideas on plot or character development to improve a book.

In nonfiction, an agent will represent your story and message to the right publisher just as in fiction, but they will often ask for clarification on stories or facts, figures, charts, and graphs.

The agent is always putting his or herself out there for you, so your book needs to be polished enough for the publisher they will be approaching.

Let me add this – if your agent is trying to change your book substantially, you might need to find a new agent. Do not let your agent bully you into writing the book they want you to write.

Now, how do you find and write the perfect pitch/query to an agent? I refer back to Writer’s Digest for this. Or, visit this link from Curtis Brown Creative. And don’t pay an agent to review your book. Walk away if they ask for money.

Advance

An advance is monies paid to the writer upfront by the publisher before the book is done. This is sort of a good-faith agreement. More substantial than a handshake.

The general thinking is that an advance is given to help the writer pay her bills, while she finishes her book.

Often this will be paid when your contract is signed. If the advance is large, the publisher may pay half upfront and the other half when a completed, acceptable manuscript is delivered. Also, know that the agent will get t heir percentage of the advance, also.

Here’s the catch – that $50k advance you’ve been dreaming about? It’s not going to happen.

Advances range from $3k – 5k. Sometimes you’ll get a bit more if the agent has done a great job of selling you and your book. It still won’t cover your bills as you write your book.

And, if your book does not sell enough copies to cover the advance, the book will go into the remainder bin. No further copies will be printed. No royalties will be paid. Royalties, BTW, are paid after the author has sold enough books to cover the advance.

Backlist

This is a list of books still in print but out of season. So, if your book is still in print after the season it was published in, it becomes backlisted. A season is winter, spring, fall, or Christmas. Notice Christmas as a season. Yes, it’s that important.

This merely refers to books that are not ‘new’ but still popular and being sold.

Bound Galleys or Print Proofs

It has come to my attention of late that some publishers, whether small press or hybrid publishers are not delivering bound galleys or print proofs to their authors.

This is a very bad practice. It does not serve the author well.

Before your book is submitted to Amazon, or anywhere else, you have the right to see a bound galley – a prepublication copy – to touch, feel, look through, and examine. This is the book you’ve written. You can hold it in your hand and marvel over it.

And you can go through it to look for errors or changes you might want to make. NO, you should not add a chapter at this point. This is where the book is 99% ready for prime time. It’s not time to second guess the content.

Chapbook

Books of fewer than 40 pages are considered Chapbooks. Usually short fiction and poetry books. Can be print or digital.

Comp Titles

These are competitive titles you will include in your book proposal. Who else is writing about the same topic or something similar to what you’re writing about? The agent or publisher will want to see what they’re up against, and you have to show them.

Do NOT say you have no competition. Do NOT say there are no books or stories like yours. You may have the most unique story or idea in the entire history of stories and ideas, but you will always have competition.

This is a problem I see a good bit. When a writer is sure his story is so different and so exceptional, he maintains he has no competition.

Whatever you’re writing, someone else has already written something like it or something so similar, it qualifies as competition. And why wouldn’t you want competition? It proves there’s a market.

Also, that is why we have genres.

Critiquing Service or Manuscript Assessment

Writer’s Digest says this, “An editing service in which writers pay a fee for comments on scalability or other qualities of their manuscript.”

We offer manuscript assessments. We will review your work and deliver a report on the editing, marketability, general strengths and weaknesses of the writing, and what your next steps might be.

You might want to read our blog post on whether or not you and your book are ready for prime time, first.

I wish more people would do this, with us or others (fees vary but plan to spend at least $300 – 500) before they move forward with publishing their book. Especially if they are Indie Publishing.

This helps polish the content/story and gives the writer actionable steps to move forward with either completing the book or publishing it. When you work with us, it also gives you insight into choosing the right publisher for your book.

Exclusive

Personally, I don’t see why anyone would give a publisher an exclusive, but people do.

When you offer a publisher exclusive rights to your story, you are waving all possibilities of presenting it to other interested parties.

Perhaps you have a favorite publisher and you want that imprint on your book. Offering an exclusive is an incentive for them to work with you.

However, don’t make it open-ended or for all future work. Have a good lawyer protect your rights.

Genre

I think everyone understands genre. It’s merely a classification of writing. Usually used for fiction – novels of every sort – but even nonfiction has genres.

Since we deal primarily with nonfiction at Master Book Builders, here are the genres associated with our authors and the work they do:

biography/autobiography, memoir, travel writing, philosophy, religion and spirituality, self-help, science, medical, psychology, art, crafts, DIY, photography, gardening, food/drink/cooking, computers and software, health and fitness, narrative nonfiction, historical nonfiction

Joint Contract

I’m including this because I think collaboration is a good thing.

In a joint contract, there is an agreement between the publisher and two or more authors to establish royalty payments.

This is primarily for traditionally published books. Understand that in the world of traditionally published books, your royalty payment is likely to be only 7%, net.

Log Line

This is also what we call a Throughline. This is a short – 15 -20 words – description of your book. Not a blurb. That’s different.

Your log line should have a hook to it. It should describe the book in terms that create emotion or feeling in the reader or listener.

What do you want the reader to know, understand, and experience, when they read your book?

That’s your log line. Too many people leave this step out when they begin strategizing the marketing of their book. Once you have your throughline or log line, talking about your book will be easy peasy, lemon squeezy!

Net Royalty

This is important to understand when you are looking at the cost and investment of your book, and how to figure that ROI.

A net royalty is, “a royalty payment based on the amount of money a book publisher receives on the sale of a book after booksellers’ discounts, special sales discounts, and returns.”

And returns. Yes, in traditional publishing a vast quantity of books sent to bookstores are returned. This allows traditional publishers to hold back 20% of your royalties in what they call a “reserve against returns”.

And that affects your royalty payment.

I hope you weren’t planning to get rich off of your book.

Platform

This is HUGE! I mean it’s HUGE!!!

Writer’s Digest calls this “a writer’s quantifiable reach within their target audience.”

For us, we want you to think of your platform as just that – a solidly constructed dias on which you can stand and shout to the world about your book. And, the world will listen – because you personally reached out to each and every person.

Your platform includes podcasts you’ve been on; other speaking engagements; your social followings – including their comments and engagement; blog subscribers; any publishing you’ve done; and any other ways you’ve promoted or are able to promote yourself and your book.

Your platform will support your marketing efforts. The more established a platform you have, the more successful you will be with your book and the goals you have for it.

Understand, agents, traditional publishers and most small press publishers want to see and understand your platform before they will work with you. They pay a lot of attention to that ‘quantifiable reach’ part.

Subsidiary Rights

Subsidiary rights include all the rights other than book publishing rights. These are always included in your contract. They cover such things as paperback rights, book club rights, movie rights, digital rights, audiobooks, and foreign language rights.

You want to fight to keep as many of these rights as possible. Please do not sign over all rights to your work.

2023 Publishing Terms

I will now include a couple of terms that were not in the Writer’s Digest article. I suspect, from the descriptions of the other terms in their list, that the article was written a good while ago and reissued recently.

Hybrid and Indie Publishing

Once thought to be the poor relation to traditional publishing, when it was known as ‘vanity publishing’, these two options to publish your book are gaining in popularity and respect.

A hybrid publisher is a publisher who asks for money to develop and print your book but uses their own imprint on it. They also take a portion of royalties.

You will sign a contract and it will be binding. I caution you to read the contract carefully. We are working with authors who did not receive the attention or expertise in publishing they thought they would when working with a hybrid publisher. More about that is here, in a recent blog post Tom wrote.

Indie publishing is the ‘new’ self-publishing. This is where you take on the role of publisher by using the various tools available, including Kindle Direct. There are companies, like ours, to help you with this and to provide the professional expertise to make sure your book is just as good as anything put out by a traditional publisher.

When you work with an Indie publisher, like us, they do the heavy lifting (editing, developmental editing, proofing, page layout, cover design) so you can write your book. At MBB, we also include a book launch as well as a marketing strategy and advice. Also, we consider ourselves part of your support team and as such we take no royalty share.

Book Launch

A book launch is a big party you throw for the release of your book. Generally, it’s promoted several weeks ahead of time to attract participants, and it’s held on Zoom. This allows people from all over the world to attend if they so choose.

Here’s how ChatGPT described it when I asked:

A book launch on Zoom is a virtual event that brings together authors, readers, and enthusiasts from various locations to celebrate the release of a new book. This online platform allows for an interactive and engaging experience, providing an opportunity for participants to connect, ask questions, and learn more about the author and their work.

In a nutshell, that’s exactly what happens. To learn more about book launches visit this post I wrote a few months ago. It’s part of my Six Step Roadmap To Writing and Publishing a Book and describes the writing, publishing, and launching of a book in – you guessed it – six steps.

Are there any other terms you would like to understand better, that were not covered here?

Tell me in the comments section.

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