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Book publishing glossary: 65 terms explained in plain English

Plain-English definitions of 65 publishing and self-publishing terms, from ARCs and BISAC to KENP, Kindle+ (formerly Kindle Unlimited), trim size and going wide.

By Daniel Rahl Jackson · 11 min read · Updated 23 October 2026

Publishing has its own vocabulary, and self-publishing has added a layer of platform jargon on top. These are the 65 terms you are most likely to meet, in plain English, with links to our deeper guides and calculators where they help. Platform rules were checked against each company's own help pages on 23 October 2026.

A

ACX
Amazon's platform for making and selling audiobooks on Audible and Amazon. Rights holders can hire a narrator or studio through it, either paying for production upfront or sharing royalties with them. See audiobook royalties.
Advance
Money a traditional publisher pays an author before publication, set against future royalties. The author earns no further royalties until sales have "earned out" the advance.
Advance reader copy (ARC)
A free early copy of a book, usually an ebook or uncorrected print proof, given to reviewers, booksellers and readers before publication so reviews are ready for launch.
Aggregator
A distributor, such as Draft2Digital, that sends your book to many stores and libraries from one upload and takes a share of each sale. It saves work but pays a little less than going to each store directly. See ebook royalty rates.
Also-boughts
The row of other books Amazon shows on a product page as bought by the same customers. Authors watch them because they show which readers Amazon associates with a book.
ARC team
A group of readers who get advance copies in return for an honest review around launch. Check each store's review rules before asking for reviews.
ASIN
Amazon Standard Identification Number, the 10-character code Amazon gives every product in its store, including every Kindle ebook and Audible audiobook. Kindle ebooks need no ISBN because the ASIN identifies them. See book numbers explained.

B

Back matter
Everything after the last chapter: for example an author bio, acknowledgements, index, bibliography or a preview of the next book.
Back-cover copy
The short sales text on the back of a print book or in a store's description field, meant to make a browser want to read the book. Often called the blurb.
Backlist
A publisher's or author's older titles that are still on sale. A strong backlist keeps earning long after launch, especially in a series.
Beta reader
A reader who tries an unpublished draft and reports what works and what doesn't, usually before professional editing.
BISAC
The subject codes maintained by the Book Industry Study Group (BISG), such as FIC000000 for FICTION / General, used to tell stores and libraries what a book is about. See book numbers explained.
Bleed
Printing that runs right to the edge of the page. For KDP print books, images that bleed must extend 0.125 inches (3.2 mm) past the trim line on the top, bottom and outside edges, because that much is cut off.
Blurb
Either the back-cover or store description of a book, or a short quote of praise from another author or reviewer printed on the cover. Which meaning is intended depends on who is talking.
A paid promotion in BookBub's daily email, which goes to millions of readers with a curated list of discounted or free ebooks. BookBub's editors choose which submitted books to feature.

C

Categories (Amazon)
The browse sections where a book appears in Amazon's store and its bestseller lists. KDP lets you choose 3 categories for each book.
Comps
Comparable titles: recent, successful books similar to yours, used to describe your book to agents, publishers, advertisers and readers. The charts are a quick way to find current ones.
Copy edit
An edit for correctness and consistency: grammar, spelling, punctuation, facts and house style. It comes after structural editing and before proofreading.
Countdown Deal
A Kindle Countdown Deal is a KDP Select promotion that cuts an ebook's price for up to 7 days on Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk, with a countdown clock on the page. The book must have been in KDP Select for at least 30 days, and you keep your royalty rate at the lower price.
Cozy
A genre label (also spelled cosy) for gentle fiction with low violence, a warm community and a comforting tone, as in cozy mysteries and cozy fantasy.

D

Delivery fee
The charge KDP subtracts from ebook royalties on the 70% option to cover file download, based on file size: US$0.15 per megabyte on Amazon.com. The 35% option has no delivery fee. See the ebook royalty calculator.
Developmental edit
The first and broadest edit, looking at structure, plot, pacing, character and argument rather than sentences. Also called a structural edit.

E

Expanded Distribution
A free KDP option that offers your paperback to bookshops, libraries and other retailers through large distributors. It pays 40% of the list price minus printing, and hardcovers aren't eligible. See KDP print costs and royalties.

F

Free Book Promotion
A KDP Select benefit that lets you make a Kindle ebook free for up to 5 days in each 90-day enrolment. You earn no royalties on free copies, and they count towards Amazon's free list rather than the paid one.
Front matter
Everything before chapter one: for example the title page, copyright page, dedication and table of contents.
Frontlist
A publisher's new and forthcoming titles, as opposed to its backlist.

G

Galley
Originally the typeset pages of a book for checking before printing; today often used to mean an advance reader copy.

H

Hook
Whatever grabs a reader's attention and makes them keep reading: an opening line, a premise or a question the story promises to answer.

I

Imprint
The publisher name shown on a book and attached to its ISBN. If you use KDP's free ISBN, the imprint appears as "Independently published"; with your own ISBN you can use your own imprint name. See book numbers explained.
Indie publishing
Publishing your own books, paying the costs and keeping the rights and most of the income, instead of selling the rights to a traditional publisher. Also called self-publishing.
ISBN
International Standard Book Number, the 13-digit number that identifies one format of one edition of a book. It is issued by the national ISBN agency where the publisher is based, and each format needs its own. See book numbers explained.

K

KDP Select
An optional 90-day Amazon program: in return for selling the ebook only through Amazon, your book goes into Kindle+ (formerly Kindle Unlimited) and becomes eligible for Countdown Deals and Free Book Promotions. Audiobooks can now be enrolled too. Print editions can still be sold anywhere, and enrolment renews automatically unless you turn it off. See Kindle Unlimited or wide.
KENP and KENPC
Kindle Edition Normalized Pages, Amazon's standard page unit for paying authors in Kindle+, calculated with set font and spacing so every book is measured the same way. KENPC is the normalized page count of a whole book. You earn for each page a subscriber reads, or now listens to, for the first time, up to 3,000 pages per title per customer.
Keywords
Search terms you give KDP so readers can find your book. KDP allows up to seven keywords or short phrases and advises against repeating words already in your title or categories.
Kindle Unlimited
The former name of Amazon's reading subscription, renamed Kindle+ on 22 October 2026, when self-published KDP and ACX audiobooks were added for US members. Books get into it through KDP Select.
Kindle+
Amazon's reading and listening subscription, called Kindle Unlimited until 22 October 2026. In the US it costs $11.99 a month and members can hold up to 20 titles at a time. Authors in KDP Select are paid from the KDP Select Global Fund by pages read or listened to. Try the Kindle Unlimited or wide calculator.

L

Line edit
An edit of the writing sentence by sentence, for rhythm, clarity, word choice and voice. It sits between a developmental edit and a copy edit.
List price
The price you set for your book. Stores may sell it for less, and in the UK and EU ebook list prices include VAT, which is taken out before your royalty is calculated. See ebook royalty rates.
Logline
A one- or two-sentence summary of a story that gives the main character, the goal and what stands in the way.
Low-content book
KDP's term for books with little or no interior content that are meant to be filled in, such as notebooks, planners and log books. They can be published without an ISBN but can't use KDP's free ISBN.

M

Metadata
All the information about a book other than the text itself: title, subtitle, author, description, categories, keywords, price, ISBN and so on. Good metadata is what makes a book findable in stores.

N

Newsletter swap
An arrangement where two authors each recommend the other's book to their own email list.

O

ONIX
ONIX for Books, the standard file format publishers and distributors use to send metadata to retailers. It is managed by EDItEUR, which also manages Thema.

P

Preorder
Letting readers order a book before release day. On KDP preorders are for ebooks only, can be set up to 18 months ahead, and need the final file at least 72 hours before release; paperbacks can have a scheduled release date instead.
Print-on-demand (POD)
Printing each copy only when it is ordered, so there is no stock to pay for or store. KDP and IngramSpark both work this way. See the print royalty calculator.
Proofread
The final check of a finished, formatted book for typos, missing words and layout errors before publication.
Public domain
Works no longer protected by copyright, which anyone can republish. When a work enters the public domain depends on the country. See republishing public-domain books.

R

Read-through
The share of readers of one book in a series who go on to buy or borrow the next. It is the key number for deciding how much you can spend promoting book one.
Reader magnet
A free book, story or extra offered to readers in exchange for joining an author's mailing list.
Returns
Bookshops normally expect to send back unsold copies for a refund. On IngramSpark you choose whether a book is returnable; if it is, you are charged the wholesale cost of each return, plus shipping if you ask for copies to be delivered to you. See print costs and royalties.
Royalty
The author's or publisher's share of each sale. For self-published books it is set by each store's rules; for traditionally published books, by the publishing contract. Compare stores with the ebook and print calculators.

S

Sales rank (BSR)
Amazon's Best Sellers Rank, a number comparing a book's sales with every other book in the store. Amazon says it is updated at least once a day and weights recent sales more heavily. It is relative, not a sales figure. See what a chart rank tells you.
Sensitivity read
A review of a manuscript by a reader with relevant lived experience, looking for inaccurate or hurtful portrayals of a community or identity.
Series bible
An author's reference document for a series: characters, places, timeline, rules of the world and anything else that has to stay consistent from book to book.
Short read
A short ebook, such as a novella, short story or brief guide, that can be read in one or two sittings.
Slush pile
The heap of unsolicited submissions waiting to be read by a literary agent or publisher.
Subsidiary rights
Rights to a book beyond the main edition, such as translation, audio, film and TV, or serial rights, which can be licensed separately and earn extra income.

T

Tagline
A short, catchy line used on a cover or in ads to sum up a book's mood or promise, shorter and punchier than a logline.
Thema
A multilingual subject classification for books, managed by EDItEUR and free to use, designed so the same codes work in every country. It does the same job as BISAC.
Traditional publishing (trad pub)
Publishing through a publisher that buys the rights, pays for editing, design, printing and distribution, and pays the author an advance and royalties.
Trim size
The finished width and height of a printed book. The most common paperback size in the US is 6 by 9 inches; on KDP, books wider than 6.12 inches or taller than 9 inches count as large trim and cost more to print. See KDP print costs.

V

Virtual voice
KDP's computer-generated narration, which turns an eligible Kindle ebook into an audiobook. It is an invitation-only beta for books in the US marketplace.

W

Wholesale discount
The share of the list price you let bookshops and wholesalers keep when you sell print books through a distributor such as IngramSpark. Your earnings are what is left after the discount and printing cost, so a bigger discount pays you less per copy but makes shops more willing to stock the book. See print costs and royalties.
Wide
Selling ebooks in many stores, such as Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play and Barnes & Noble, instead of only on Amazon through KDP Select. See Kindle Unlimited or wide.
Widow and orphan
Typesetting faults where a single line of a paragraph is stranded: usually a widow is a last line alone at the top of a page and an orphan is a first line alone at the bottom. Style guides don't always agree on which is which.

Sources

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