Glossary of Industry Terms

GLOSSARY OF INDUSTRY TERMS

The publishing industry, like many industries, has a language unto itself. To equip you with as much knowledge as possible, we have defined frequently used industry and BookSurge terms. Should you run across jargon during your bookmaking and publishing experience, this glossary can be "bookmarked" for future reference. *Keep in mind that these definitions may vary among organizations.

A - C | D - F | G - I | J - L | M - O | P - R | S - U | V - Z

Account Manager

The BookSurge staff member whom you will work with throughout the bookmaking process.

Acquisitions

The stage in the BookSurge bookmaking process after you upload your book files. During acquisitions, BookSurge will review your file(s) to ensure they meet our specifications and we have received all of the information we need, such as the appropriate placement of page and section breaks and high-resolution images to produce a high-quality print file, so your book will move through the rest of the bookmaking process smoothly.

Adobe Acrobat Reader

A free application distributed by Adobe Systems that is used for viewing digital PDF/.pdf (Portable Document Format) files. PDF files are compact and complete with the fonts, images, graphics and layout from the source document used to create them. PDF files can be viewed by anyone with Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Adobe Illustrator

A drawing program used for creating and designing digital artwork such as logos and illustrations.

Adobe InDesign

Page layout software used by publishing and design professionals.

Adobe Photoshop

A program that allows one to manipulate, edit, process and refine digital pictures and images.

Amazon.com

One of the world's largest online retail destinations

Amazon Advantage

A proven and powerful means of distribution and order fulfillment that allows you to work directly with Amazon.com to market your products to customers. To learn more or apply, visit www.amazon.com/advantage.

AmazonConnect

A program available through Amazon.com that allows authors to communicate directly with their readers by posting messages that appear on their readers’ Amazon.com home pages and their book’s detail page, provide stimulating content for potential buyers of their book and build a reader community by establishing loyalty and direct one-on-one relationships with their readers.  Learn more about Amazon Connect.

Amazon Marketplace

A program available through Amazon.com through which outside vendors can sell products. Learn more about selling products through Marketplace.

Author biography

A field that all BookSurge authors may complete in their online account to provide readers with details about their background, career and awards or recognition they have received. Any information that helps establish the author's credibility or personalizes the author to his readers and target audience should be included in the author bio, which is featured in the "About the Author" section of the book's detail page on Amazon.com. Maximum of 1000 characters. Creation of the author biography is included with the Cover Copy Plus! service, if purchased.

Author copy

A complimentary copy of the author's finished trade paperback book that is printed and shipped to the author after he approves the book's physical proof through his online GPS account. 

Author/Physical proof

Once BookSurge has printed and accepted an in-house proof copy of your book, we will print and ship a physical proof to you within five business days. You will need to approve this physical proof through your online GPS account to make your book print-ready and available for purchase. 

Baker & Taylor

The largest wholesale distribution center of books in the U.S. (a place that warehouses books for bookstores).

BISAC (Book Industry Standards And Communications) Categories

These are standard categories used by the book-selling industry to categorize books. Each book can fall into many categories based upon the audience the book is trying to reach. For example, a Self-help book with an emphasis of Christian overtones could be categorized as Self-Help/General and Religion/Christian Life. Through your account in GPS, you, the author, can select a BISAC category to represent your book.

Bleed

The part of an image that extends beyond the trim marks of a page. The area on the digital cover file that extends beyond the final trim line to accommodate for cutting and/or trimming tolerance; in other words, an image that encompasses the entire page to ensure there are no white lines around the edges of the page. Bleed area should not include any "live" elements that cannot be cut during printing.

Blog

Industry term for a "Web Log," or an on-line, web-based journal. These web-logs are non-regulated communication mediums where the owner of the web-log can write freely about whatever or whomever they choose. These journals can be searched on-line by anyone in the world and can give general, in-depth, or at times even mis-information about the subject on which they are writing. Authors often use blogs to post up-to-date relevant information online for fans and other writers.

Book Block

The formatted interior files of your book complete with images, chapter headings, page numbers and other elements added when your book is laid out according to your template selection.

Brick & Mortar Bookstores

Non-online based bookstores where there is a physical inventory of books and a person can walk in and purchase books.

CAP (Content Acquisition Program)

BookSurge partnered with Amazon.com to offer authors the opportunity to participate in the Content Acquisition Program, through which BookSurge will provide sales and marketing data about participating titles to acquisition editors at traditional publishing houses seeking fresh content. Authors interested in participating in the program must give BookSurge permission to release their contact information to interested publishers.

Case bound laminate

A fully laminated hard cover option; if you select this option, BookSurge will utilize the cover design used for your paperback version to create your hard cover book.

CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black)

The printer colors used to create full-color prints. Combining each of these four colors in varying proportions allows you to create the full color spectrum. 

Corrections

Any change needed to be made to a manuscript submission once it has been formatted. Applicable fees may apply.

Cover Art

The image, graphic, photo, etc. an author has prepared to use with one of the appropriate cover design options. Cover art must be submitted per BookSurge's image submission specifications.

Digital Printing

Modern method of printing books directly from computer files, allowing companies to print one book at a time, rather than having to print thousands at once and warehouse them. Print on Demand uses this printing method.

Digital/Electronic Proof

Adobe PDF files of your book block and cover that will be sent to you to review. Your printed book will appear in the exact manner as it does on your digital proofs.

.doc

File extension associated with digital documents created in Microsoft Word.

Download

To transfer data or files from one computer to the memory of another computer and / or device.

DPI (Dots per Inch)

A measure of image resolution; the higher the number, the sharper the image. To ensure the highest quality printing, BookSurge requires that images submitted for use in your book are at least 300 DPI.

Drop Ship

An arrangement between a manufacturer and a distributor / retailer in which the manufacturer ships the product to the end customers. 

Embedded Graphics

The upload field in GPS used to provide a compressed file containing all images, graphics, photos, graphs, charts, etc. that are to be placed into a manuscript during the formatting process.

Endnotes

Notations that are made at the end of each chapter to cite sources used throughout that chapter. BookSurge's manuscript submission programs support endnotes, but do not support footnotes.

Extended Description

This is a book description either provided by the author or provided for the author through the Cover Copy Plus! This description should contain more in-depth information about the contents of the book than the cover text provides. This may be used as a general book synopsis, and could be used by the author as content for a variety of marketing materials.

Flattened file

An image or layout that has been created using a PDF program such as Photoshop and is no longer editable.

Fleuron

A decorative way to indicate a Section break in a manuscript; BookSurge offers various fleuron styles, depending on which interior design template you select.

Formatting

The process through which BookSurge takes your manuscript and cover design elements and converts them in to book form according to the templates you selected, using sophisticated page layout and design software.

Front matter

Pages preceding the actual text of a book. Front matter would include material such as the title page, copyright page, table of contents, dedication, acknowledgments, introduction and prologue.

Full-Color

Printing using a combination of inks (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black, also referred to as CMYK) to achieve all possible varieties of visual color.

Global Publishing System (GPS)

The BookSurge software application through which authors and publishers can monitor the status of their titles, make selections, upload book files, receive important news and updates, order books, view royalties earned, and more.

Grayscale

A photo or image made up of varying tones of black and white.

Halftone Image

An image that has been converted from continuous tone to a series of dots of various sizes to simulate shades of gray.

Hard cover

Books bound using thick, sturdy binding boards. BookSurge offers three types of hard cover books: library cloth, library cloth with dust jacket and case bound laminate.

• Library cloth - the binding boards are covered with plain cloth
• Library cloth with dust jacket - the binding boards are covered with plain cloth and a separate, removable paper jacket with your book's full-color cover is placed around the book
• Case bound laminate - the binding boards are covered with a thick glossy laminate with your book's full-color cover

Hard return

Also referred to as a carriage return; authors will want to include a hard return by hitting the enter key on their keyboard to signify a section break without a fleuron (see previous page for definition).

Imposition

The stage in the bookmaking process in which BookSurge creates the print files of your book that will be recognized by our printers to actually produce copies of your book.

In House Copy (IHC)

The stage of the BookSurge bookmaking process in which BookSurge prints an internal copy and examines it for production quality assurance purposes. During this process, BookSurge will review the book for possible problems with the formatting of the print files, not content or text. Also referred to as a Hard Copy Proof (HCP).

ISBN (International Standard Book Number)

A unique, machine-readable 10 or 13-digit number assigned to every printed book; ISBNs are used by retailers and libraries for ordering and cataloging books.

JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group )

A common image format used to compress still images. JPEG files have a .jpg file extension.

LCCN (Library of Congress Control Number)

A number requested from the Library of Congress so that a book may be listed in their catalog. The book will need to have this number to be listed in libraries in the US.

Library Cloth Binding

With this hard cover option, the title of your book and your author name will be stamped in gold foil on the spine.

Library Cloth with Dust Jacket

A hard cover option, with a navy blue library binding fabric hard cover and a full color dust jacket featuring the paperback's cover design.

Line edit

An edit in which an editor reads a manuscript line by line focusing on the mechanics of written communication. This type of editing gives attention to consistency of capitalization, spelling, punctuation, and basic grammar and syntax.

Literary Agent

Literary agents serve as the "middlemen" between authors and traditional publishers. Most traditional publishers do not accept unsolicited manuscripts but work through with literary agents to review fresh content. The literary agent will handle all negotiations between the author and publisher and will receive a certain cut of the signing deal.

Manuscript Submission

A copy of the book's interior text prepared by the author to be converted into a book. BookSurge accepts manuscripts in .doc, .docx, .rtf and .txt file types that meet our Manuscript Submission Specifications.

Offset Printing

The typical name for Offset Lithography; a form of printing that is based on the concept that oil and water do not mix. Image areas on plates attract ink and non-image areas attract water in order to stay clean. The image is transferred or "offset" to a blanket for crispness and then to the substrate. Most conventional publishers use this method to print books, as it reduces the per book cost for large print runs.

Online search marketing

Search engines allow advertisers to bid on ad placement when certain keywords are searched on their sites. Online search marketing is highly competitive and depending on how much the advertiser bids per click, their ad may or may not show in the search results. Authors can take advantage of this and bid on keywords related to their book or genre.

Out of Print (OPI)

A term used to describe an edition of a book when the publisher no longer has copies and is not planning to do a reprinting of the book. Copies already in circulation may be available from secondary sources.

Page break

Indicates where one book page should end and the next begin.

PDF (Portable Document Format)

A universal file format that preserves the fonts, images, graphics and layout from a source document, regardless of the application and platform used to create it. PDF files are compact and complete and can be viewed by anyone with Adobe Acrobat Reader, a free application distributed by Adobe Systems. When an author or publisher chooses to submit their book files in PDF format, the books will be printed exactly as they are provided; BookSurge will not add, remove or change anything in these files.

Perfect Bound

A type of binding that uses glue to bind loose page sheets; adjacent pages are stacked together, the spine edge is glued, and a cover is glued to the spine. The most common type of binding for paperback books.

Pixelated Image

A low-resolution image where you can see the individual squares, dots, or pixels that make up the total image.

PPI (pixels per inch)

A measure of image resolution; the higher the number, the sharper the image . For all practical purposes, DPI and PPI are interchangeable terms.

Press Release

A statement/document written especially for distribution to the media for the purpose of announcing something newsworthy.

Print-on-Demand (POD)

A publishing business model in which books are printed after they are ordered, allowing authors and publishers to produce books with minimal risk and without the hassle of inventory and warehousing. POD typically uses digital printing technology.

Print-Ready

The term BookSurge uses to denote that your book is completed, ready for printing and available for sale through our various retail and wholesale distribution channels.

Publishing Consultant

The BookSurge staff member who will guide you through the publishing process and recommend specific publishing services and products to help you achieve your publishing goals. While marketing your book is ultimately your responsibility as a self-published author, your personal Publishing Consultant will also offer guidance and advice on your strategy for marketing and promoting your book.

QuarkXPress

Another professional page layout software program used by publishing and design professionals.

Resolution

Image resolution refers to picture detail or the actual number of pixels that are packed into a digital image. Resolution is defined as the number of pixels per square inch (ppi) or as the number of dots per square inch (dpi). For all practical purposes in discussing resolution, pixels and dots are essentially interchangeable.

RGB (Red, Green Blue)

The color spectrum used by color monitor displays and TVs. The combination and intensities of these three colors can represent the whole color spectrum. Digital Images captured in color from most scanners or taken with a digital camera are in RGB color mode. Images in RGB color mode must be converted to CMYK for the printing process.

Royalty

The amount of money an author receives for each copy of his or her title that is manufactured and fulfilled by BookSurge through either a retail or wholesale channel.

RTF (Rich Text Format)

An export file format supported by many word processing programs. RTF files have an .rtf file extension.

Section break

A break within a chapter of a book that may have a decorative fleuron or not. See BookSurge's Manuscript Submission Specifications for more information.

Self-publishing

Self-publishing service providers offer freedom from both the obstacles of traditional publishing and the burden of do-it-yourself publishing. Authors turn to a self-publishing house that provides guidance and expertise in handling their publishing project. A blend of the best of traditional publishing and the autonomy of conventional do-it-yourself publishing, today's new self-publishing houses give authors the advantage of years of experience in the industry, without controlling their manuscripts or limiting their options. When an author chooses to self-publish, he/she assumes all responsibility for the marketing and sales of that book. Author assumes all costs of production and other services.

Sentence Description

One compelling sentence describing your book that cannot be over 200 characters (including spaces). This is placed on Alibris.com and publicity kit items. Creation of the sentence description is included with the Cover Copy Plus! service, if purchased.

Short Description

A general short synopsis of a book under 1000 characters. This appears on the website when the book goes print ready and on the publicity kit postcards and bookmark. Creation of the short description is included with the Cover Copy Plus! service, if purchased.

Short Run Printing

A print run of approximately 500 copies or less that typically uses digital printing technology.

Submission specifications

These documents outline all of BookSurge's specifications and requirements and vary depending on which type of files you are submitting - black & white or full-color, text only or text with images, etc. All files must be submitted to BookSurge according to these specifications. Failure to do so will result in a pause in the bookmaking process.

Substantive edit

An edit in which an editor reads a manuscript for organization and presentation of content. This type of edit focuses heavily on syntax, reorganization or tightening of the manuscript, and rephrasing text for smoothness and clarity.

Template

A pre-determined style to be used in formatting your book's cover and interior. Templates have specific, un-editable elements such as font, font size, chapter headings, headers and footers.

TIFF (Tagged Image File Format)

A common uncompressed image file format. TIFF files have a .tif file extension.

Trade Paperback

Refers to a paperback book bound with a heavy paper cover.

Trim Size

The size in which your final book will be printed. Trim sizes are always indicated as width in inches by height in inches (ex: A trim size of 6"x9" means the printed book will be 6 inches wide and 9 inches tall).

.txt

File extension associated with digital documents created or exported as "text only" .txt files contain no formatting but preserve all standard characters.

Upload

To transfer a file from a desktop computer to a Web server or other program/device.

Vector image

A series of mathematically defined lines and curves that can be scaled to any size without losing its crisp, smooth edges

Virtual Book Tour

A publishing industry term for planned, consistent online promotion of a book, utilizing blogs, placing ads on websites, holding online interviews and telecasts.

Website Book Image

An image of your book's front cover that will be displayed on various online retail sites, such as Amazon.com.