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a glossary of publishing terms

Knowing the following publishing terms will help you when you work with editors, book designers, and printing houses on your project.

Aa

Acknowledgement
Usually a part of the book's frontmatter. This can be a separate page or a paragraph on the copyright page where you thank the individuals or organizations who helped with your book.

Afterword
Usually a part of the book's backmatter. Your parting remarks to the reader.

Anti-alias
A graphic design term used when referring to digital typography. When you anti-alias text, you minimize the jagged edges of the letters to make them smooth on screen and when printed.

Author's Alterations
Changes in text or artwork after the book has been sent to the printer. These changes usually cost extra and are charged to the client by the printer.

Bb

Back Flap
One hardcover books that have a separate paper cover with flaps, this is the one that tucks in front of the back cover. It can contain text continued from the front flap, a photo of the author, author bio, or other text.

Backmatter
Any text that appears after the main text of the book. This can include the afterword, appendix, glossary, or index.

Bad Bread
An unnatractive or inconsistent break in a line or page such as poor hyphenation or a widow/orphan.

Bleed
The portion of and image or text that extends beyond the trim of the page.

Blurb
An endorsement of your book by a well-known or respected personality such as another writer or expert in your field. These appear on the back cover of your book.

Cc

C1S (Coated One Side)
Paper that has a coating or finish on only one side. This paper is often used for book covers.

Case-bound
Another name for a hardcover book.

Card Stock
A more rigid paper stock, it is mostly used for printing postcards, catalog covers, notecards, and items which require more rigidity.

CMYK
Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black. These are the 4 colours that make up the 4-colour process that is used on all full-colour covers and interiors.

Contract Proof
A proof provided by the printer that you sign to say it is OK to go ahead with the final printing.

Copyeditor
A vital part of your publishing team, the copyeditor corrects the grammar and spelling in your manuscript and checks your facts for accuracy.

Crop Mark
A set of horizontal and vertical lines on the outer edges of a page that indicate to the printer where they should trim.

Dd

Direct-To-Plate
When a project is printed by skipping the film step and going directly from digital files to printing plates and press.

Direct-To-Press
When a project is printed by skipping the film and printing plate step and going directly from digital files to the press.

Distributor
A company or warehous that will ship your books to retail outlets. You usually have to negotiate a contract with distributors and pay either a monthly or per book fee.

Dust Jacket
The paper wrap on a hardcover book.

Ee

e-Book
A digital version of your finished book, that can be downloaded, for free or for a fee, to computers, cellphones, and PDAs.

Edition
Reprinting your book using the same original materials when changes have been made. Each printing becomes a new edition and must have it's own barcode and copyright information.

Editor
Unlike a copyeditor, an editor is usually affiliated with a publishing house and works with you throughout the life of your book, from acquiring rights to editing the manuscript to sales and marketing.

Emboss
To raise a portion of the surface of the paper, such as the title of your book on the cover. This is frequently done with trade papaerbacks.

Endpaper
The decorative or colourful paper used to bind a book's front and back pages to it's cover, traditionally in hardcover books.

EPS
Encapsulated PostScript. This is the preffered file format for high-resolution artwork to be placed on your book cover or within your book pages.

Ff

Flap Copy
The text you would like to appear on the front or back flaps of your dust jacekt if you are printing a hardcover book.

Flush Left
When the lines of text align on the left hand side and are left ragged on the right. Sometimes reffered to as "flush left/rag right."

Flush Right
When the lines of text align on the right hand side and are left ragged on the left. Also known as "right align".

Folio
The page numbering for your book. If placed at the top of the page, it is called a "folio". If it is placed at the bottom of the page, it is called a "drop folio".

Foreword
Usually in the frontmatter, these are introductory remarks to your book written by someone other than the author.

Four-colour
The process of using cyan, magenta, yellow, and black ink to produce a book cover of interior pages in full colour.

Frontmatter
All the text that comes before the main text of your book. This can include the title page, copyright, table of contents, acknowledgements, foreword, introduction, and so on. These pages are usually numbered separately from the main text using roman numerals.

Gg

Galley
A bound draft copy of your book, usually without final copyediting, available for review before final publication. These are generally produced by larger publishing houses to promote their authors.

Ghost Writer
A co-writer who helps you write your book and not given credit on their work.

GIF
Graphics Interchange Format. A file format used by lo-resolution piexlized art for the web. This format is not hi-res enough for printing.

Gutter
The inner margin of your printed page. You do not want your text to go too far into the gutter or it may not be legible when opening your book.

Hh

H&J
Hyphenation and Justification. Today's page layout programs allow the designer to adjust hyphenation and justification paramters on your pages. Hyphenation can be set for minimum number of letters on a line while justification can be set to left align, right align, center, and justified.

Hairline Rule
A very fine line, measuring a half a point (0.5pt).

Half Title
A duplicate title page, usually with less information, preceding the title page. These can be added when pages are needed to fill out a signature.

Hanging Indent
When the first line of a paragraph juts out further left than the rest of the text.

Hard Copy
A printed copy of your digital files.

Hard Hyphen
A hyphen that is manually inserted into a word. If the text reflows, it will still be in the word and will need to be deleted manually.

Head Margin
The space above your main text on the printed page.

Hickey
A printing error on your page such as a spot due to dirt on the press.

Jj

Jacket
The cover of the book. This can be hardcover or paperback.

Jaggies
When the edges of an image or text have a hagged appearance. This can be caused by the image/font not being provided to the printer, an image being lo-resolution instead of hi-resolution, or an image being the wrong format.

Justified
Text in which both the left and right sides align. This is the most standard alignment in paperback books.

Kk

Kern
To adjust the spacing between individual letters so that they look visually proportioned.

Ll

Lamination
Used sometime in hardcover book production - a plastic film is bonded by heat and pressure to the book cover for protection and appearance.

Leading
The space between lines of type. This is measured from one baseline to the next.

Ligature
Many letter can be joined together in printing to form new characters, such as "fi" and "fl". In these cases, the tops of the two letters would join together.

Limited Edition
A special printing of your book, in a limited quantity, usually signed.

Oo

Orphan
When the end of a paragraph or beginning of a column of text is short due to a single short word or end of a hyphenated word.

Out of Print
When your book is no longer being printed and there are no more copies for sale.

Out of Stock
When your book is still being printed but it is temporarly unavailable for sale.

Overprinting
When you deliberately set one color to print onto another. This is generally done with 100% black ink, which does not show through other colors.

Pp

Page Layout
When the book designer assembles all the elements on your pages such as text and graphics.

Page Proof
A layout of the pages as they will appear in publication. You can receive proofs from your designer and from the printer to edit and approve.

Pen Name
Your writing pseudonym.

Permission
Authorization from a copyright owner to quote them or reproduce their work in your book. Some items you may need permission for are photos, artwork, quotes, and charts.

Pica
A typographic unit of measure used by designers when working with your interior pages and cover typography.

PMS
Pantone Matching System. The standard colour system used for printing your book in any process other than full-colour, such as 2-colour.

Press Date
The scheduled date for the boook to go to press.

Press Proof
The final colour proof from your printer to verify colour and printing quality.

Print (or Press) Run
The total number of books you are producing.

Printer's Error (PE)
Mistakes made by the printer that are not charged to the client.

Pub Date
The scheduled release date for the boook.

Rr

Recto
The right-hand page of the book.

Registration Marks
These are used in design and layout and help align the different pieces of film during plate-making.

Reverse Type
When you print white on black, instead of black on white.

Ss

Sans Serif
A typeface without serifs, or the little decorative strokes at the end of the main strokes. Times is an example of a serif typeface.

Signature
Professionaly printed books are book using signatures - pages folded in groups of 8 or 16. You need to keep this in mind when calculating your final page count.

Sinkage
The extra white space a designer puts at the top of a chapter opener to distinguish it from the rest of the pages.

Soft Hyphen
A hyphen that is inserted into a word using a computer command. If the text reflows, it will disappear.

Spot Varnish
When only a small piece, or "spot", of your printed project is to receive a varnish.

Spread
The two pages that face each other in a document.

Stock
Refers to the paper or material that is to be printed on.

Tt

Trim Size
The final size of your page after it has been trimmed. Traditional book trim size include 5.5" x 8.5", 6" x 9", and 7" x 10".

Uu

Uncoated
A stock that has no coating or varnish and allows ink absorption during the printing process. It is usually less expensive than coated stocks.

Unit Cost
The price you get from the printer to print per piece, or per book.

Vv

Varnish
You can varnish a paper project after printing to produce several effects - glossy or matte - to give a desired look.

Verso
The left-hand page of your book.

Ww

Watermark
A symbol or trademark that has been manufactured into paper and is only visible when held up to the light.

Widow
When the end of a paragraph or beginning of a column of text is short due to a single short word or end of a hyphenated word.

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