The Publishing Industry
The challenges of navigating the book industry are the same whether you're self-publishing or pursuing a royalty-publishing contract. Either way, the better you know the lingo, the better you'll understand the issues that will affect your success and profits. Jordan has been dealing with all aspects of the book industry, including POD companies, traditional printers, the Bowker ISBN system, retailers and distributors, since 2004. To ensure your self-publishing success, you can purchase his book and contact him with questions.
(Click the green links within each definition to view a related term.)
Glossary of Terms
- Advertising
- Activities related to the promotion of a book to the general public or Niche Market; usually refers to graphic ad copy or book Reviews. A banner swap between two Web sites is an example of free Advertising.
- Barcode
- The series of vertical black lines used for scanning your book’s price and ISBN information into a Point-Of-Sale system.
- Book Signing
- A public event at a retail store or other venue where the author signs copies of the book, which are sold by either the author or host.
- Books in Print
- Database of books and ISBNs maintained by R.R. Bowker.
- Bowker.com
- The Web site of R.R. Bowker, for purchasing ISBNs.
- Brand
- Your public persona as an author that helps you connect with your Niche Market, which can include a Pen Name, gender identity, life experiences, philosophy, etc., which is highlighted consistently in your Marketing materials and on your Web site. Example: BrokeAssStuart.com.
- Bulk Printer
- A Printer that manufactures physical copies of books in bulk, in quantities purchased by the Publisher.
- Consignment
- Products that the Retailer does not pay for until after they are sold to the end user.
- Copyedit
- A term for non-organizational Editing, including editing for spelling, punctuation, Grammar, sentence structure and flow, etc.
- Copyright
- The legal right to own and reproduce a product.
- Cost
- See Manufacturing Cost. “At Cost” means “at no profit.”
- Cover
- The outside image of your book, both front, back, and spine.
- Distributor
- A company that sells books to Retailers. See Wholesaler.
- Download
- To transfer a file or E-Book from the Web to your computer.
- E-Book
- The Interior of a book that is Downloaded from a Web site to your computer, usually as a .pdf file.
- Edit
- To revise or correct printed materials to prepare them for publication. Usually refers to a book’s overall organization and marketability.
- Fiction
- A book that tells a make-believe story, even if the story is based on real events or people. Includes both Genre and Literary Fiction.
- Genre
- A category of literature (or music) with stylistic criteria. Examples of genres for Fiction include Horror, Mystery, Romance, and Science Fiction. Literary Fiction, or General Fiction, does not fit into a Genre.
- Grammar
- Standard rules of language usage, including the structure of words, phrases, clauses and sentences.
- Imprint of Record
- The legal Publisher of a book, who owns the ISBN as listed with R.R. Bowker.
- Interactive .pdf
- A .pdf file that includes embedded page number links from the Table of Contents, Index, or other Interior pages.
- Interior
- The inside pages of your book, including text and images.
- Invoice
- An itemized financial statement of money owed.
- ISBN
- The International Standard Book Number assigned to a book by R.R. Bowker, imprinted into the Barcode on the back of a book Cover.
- Layout
- Technical aspects of the Interior pages of a book, such as margins, fonts, indents, line spacing, chapter breaks, index tables, etc.
- Library of Congress
- The national library of the U.S. Congress, which catalogs printed books to be easily found by libraries across the country.
- Literary Fiction
- A common term for Non-Genre or General Fiction.
- MSRP
- Manufacturer’s Suggested Retail Price: the baseline price at which the book is generally sold to the end user.
- Manufacturing Cost
- The amount of money paid by the Publisher for each book, including the freight or shipping charges added by the Printer.
- Manuscript
- A copy of the Interior content of a book, still being revised and Edited, prior to Layout.
- Marketing
- Activities related to the promotion of a book, including Advertising, Book Signings, personal networking, and other outreach and publicity efforts, including the establishment of good will (e.g. giveaways).
- Niche Market
- An identifiable and locatable target audience, easily reached through specific Retailers, magazines, organizations, or Web sites.
- Non-fiction
- A book intended to relay true or factual information, or the actual opinions or philosophy of a real person or group of people.
- Offline
- Pertaining to brick-and-mortar Retailers or other locations.
- PayPal
- The most popular online service for setting up a Point-Of-Sale online storefront and processing credit card sales.
- .pdf File
- A file in Portable Document Format, readable by the free Adobe Reader application. See also Interactive .pdf.
- Pen Name
- A fictional name used for the purpose of hiding the identity of the author of a book, or for creating a clever Brand or author persona.
- Point-Of-Sale (POS)
- A cash register or online application that a Retailer uses to calculate totals and sales tax, and process credit cards.
- Preview Copies
- Book copies printed for the purpose of soliciting Reviews; non-finalized in that reviews may be added to the Interior or Cover.
- Print-On-Demand (POD)
- A Printer that manufactures physical copies of books as they are sold.
- Printer
- A company that prints or manufactures physical copies of books or other printed materials. See Print-On-Demand and Bulk Printer.
- Proofread
- To look for errors in a manuscript, usually after Layout.
- Publisher
- Legally, the owner of the rights of reproduction for a book; the Imprint of Record listed with R.R. Bowker as the owner of an ISBN. Practically, the person or company responsible for the production and promotion of a book. See Self-Publish and Royalty-Publishing.
- R.R. Bowker
- The sole company that assigns ISBNs and maintains the Books in Print database for the U.S.
- Retailer
- A company, whether online or at a brick-and-mortar location, that sells products to the end user and collects applicable sales tax.
- Review
- An opinion or critique of your book to be printed in a magazine, on a Web site, or on your own book Cover or other Marketing materials.
- Royalties
- The portion of sales paid to the author by either a Royalty Publisher selling to book distributors or a Print-On-Demand company selling online, based upon a prior agreement or contract.
- Royalty-Publishing
- A company that Publishes and sells your book and then sends you only the agreed-upon Royalties.
- Self-Publish
- To have complete responsibility over the work and decisions involved in bringing a book to market, even though a Print-on-Demand company may be the legal Publisher (i.e. holds the Imprint of Record by owning the ISBN) for the book.
- Upload
- To transfer a digital file, such as a (Cover) image or (Interior) text file, from your computer to a Web site or server.
- Vetting Process
- Judging and choosing books for quality and marketability. A Print-On-Demand company has none, since they accept every book.
- Wholesaler
- A company that sells books to Retailers. See Distributor.
Book availability...
Once all the production decisions have been made and your book is ready for release, it’s time to focus on making your book available and visible. In fact, if you have all the money you need to start with, it’s best to focus on availability before visibility - i.e. to make your book available through the maximum number of outlets so that once you focus on promotion, your audience members can get your book anywhere they want. But if, like me, you start with almost no money at all, then you can gradually expand your book’s availability over time.
Reach your market...
Audience specialization is accomplished by concentrating your promotional efforts on those most likely to buy. Before you wrote your book, you analyzed your potential audience, and then you slanted your text toward them. In producing your book, you considered how it might be marketed and made your product attractive in this medium. Perhaps you put extra effort into the cover. The selection of your marketing channels is very important. For example, the chains seem to concentrate on fast-moving books. If your book is very technical and is aimed at a very narrow audience, you do not want to send them to the chains. The unsold books will only come back. Even if you get your book into a nonbook market where there aren't any returns, you want the books to sell, not to sit on the shelves forever. You want dealers who are repeat customers. So consider who patronizes each of the various outlets, and be objective in considering whether they are your buying audience.
There is no secret formula. It is simply a good item for which there is a need, at the right price, offered to the right market.
- Dan Poynter, The Self-Publishing Manual