How to Sound Like You Know About Publishing

Because no one does

Friends!

I’ve recently been thinking and talking a lot about publishing in general, and not just in the everyday practice of my job. I’m readying materials for my next online class at NYU (YOU'VE FINISHED THE BOOK--NOW WHAT? GUIDANCE AND STRATEGIES FOR BECOMING A PUBLISHED AUTHOR—a two session class open to all!) and there was a publishing subplot of the Sex and the City extension? reboot? And Just Like That… I LOVE a book or show about publishing (RIP Younger!) and I love it EVEN MORE when they get things wrong! (This one time on Younger they said the publisher owned all the content on the author’s Instagram so they could just cobble the book together from that!!!! VERY VERY FALSE!!!! They had galleys like a week after a book was signed! NEVER!!!!) Anyway, it gave me the idea to write up a little glossary of publishing terms that you can study so you can sound in the know about book publishing, if you aren’t already. I hope this gives you the opportunity to be like actually that means…. to someone, which, to my great shame, is a small joy of my life. (I’m working on it.)

PUBLISHER: literally the company who makes the books

IMPRINT: like a brand that’s part of a larger publishing house. Usually specializes in certain genres, broadly or narrowly

COLOPHON: the little picture on the spine/title page that’s the logo for the publisher or imprint

LITERARY AGENT: does not work for the publisher, but like an actor’s agent, but with books, represents the author, sells books to publishers

ADVANCE: the money you get in a book deal, like upfront money against future earnings of the book. IN ADVANCE, as it says right there in the name

ROYALTIES: this is money you get after your book sells enough to EARN OUT the advance. Most books do not earn royalties! And the checks only come twice a year!

OPTION: re: film rights—a company (could be a production company or producer or something) buys the right to try and get a show or movie made. This is only for a set period of time. If you say “oh yes, my book has been optioned” you will sound very fancy. A goodly number of books are optioned. Few are actual made into shows/movies.

OPTION: re: contracts—the publisher often, but not always, has dibs on the author’s next book. This is specifically defined in the contract and it doesn’t go away even if it’s been a LONG time since your book came out.

GALLEY: also known as an ARC (said both as A.R.C. or arc), which means Advance Reader’s Copy or Advance Review Copy, is a paperback version of the book (and/or ebook) made available to reviewers and influencers before the on-sale date. This is so reviewers can read it early and write their reviews before the book comes out. Not everything gets a printed galley (especially these days). GALLEYBRAGGING is posting on social media that you were special enough to get an early copy. Galleys are not the final text (there can be typos—no one cares) and DO NOT RESELL OR BUY GALLEYS ON THE INTERNET.

BOOKSCAN: BookScan is a point of sale tracking company that can tell you how many** copies of a book have been sold. With a HUGE asterisk. Retailers report their sales to this company and they make that info available to people who pay (A LOT) for access to the information. It only counts what is reported to them, and not everyone reports their sales! It is fairly accurate when it comes to novels and general non-fiction. It is less accurate for specialty titles like gift books, or books that sell the best in non-bookstore stores. It’s complicated. But sometimes it’s the best numbers we have.

RETURNS: a bookstore can send back unsold books. This is why there is no up-to-the-minute, accurate accounting of how many books a title has sold. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ sorry! About six months after a book comes out, returns can start to come in. That’s when you have a better idea of actual sales.

BOOK TOUR: a thing we used to do to publicize a book and fete an author. (Doesn’t actually sell any books on the whole, but it fun to do.)

I could go on! But I’ll stop there. Are there any words you use but you don’t know if they’re right? Post in the comments!

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Hey, did you notice our new look? Isn’t it GREAT? I wanted to have a new look to celebrate the THIRD YEAR of Agents & Books. (??????????) Huge, colossal, enormous thanks to Brandon Kelley, whose podcast you should check out if you like soccer (and not just because I’m married to his co-host) for these amazing designs. Doesn’t it look SO GOOD????????

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Stay warm, stay healthy, stay masked.

OXOXOXOXOX,

Kate