Here are some book publishing terms you should know

This serves as a light glossary of key book publishing terms for new authors unfamiliar with the phrases and abbreviations casually tossed around in the book-publishing world.

1. “It’s all about the comps”

When a literary agent or editor speaks about comps, they are not referring to computers, nor anything that may be complementary.

In book publishing, comps generally stands for competitive or comparative titles/authors.

A literary agent will often request two to three of these from an author to work into the literary agent’s pitch to publishers. None of this is ever to merely compare an author’s manuscript to similar works, but rather to hold an author’s manuscript in high esteem.

A good comp is usually a similar book genre/age group, published within the last three to five years, that was an award-winner or bestseller. Best to compare to success.

In the eyes of an editor, comps help to place the manuscript under consideration in its proper place on a publishing list and answers any questions for a publisher on where a book would fit in at a bookstore. This might also be a way of selling the book to readers.

However, you write a fantasy, don’t go and compare yourself to classics and masters such as J.R.R. Tolkien—that just gets eye rolls from literary agents and editors.

2. “This is a hurry-up-and-wait business”

An impatient author may want to hear back on their submission quickly, but publishing is generally a slow-moving business, as it takes time to read.

Three to four months is usually a reasonable amount of time to expect to hear from editors at publishing houses, once they’ve received a manuscript submission from a literary agent.

Especially after that three- to four-month period, it’s more than reasonable to expect a literary agent to follow up with editors still considering a submission.

Of course, just like writers, literary agents wish editors could read much faster. Apart from the submission process of book publishing, other functions can sometimes be slow as a result of this “mañana” attitude among some book publishers.

3. “Book publishing is a backward business”

One of the things that makes book publishing unique is people tend to stumble into book publishing as a profession, usually from a background in the humanities. (In recent years, this is changing with more undergraduate and graduate studies in book publishing being offered at colleges and universities).

So rather than having a bunch of business majors running publishing as a business, often there are English majors trying to make sense of a business landscape in book publishing.  

As you can imagine, that can make for some interesting results. Sometimes this type of precarious situation can unintentionally results in what might feel like an unprofessional business environment, and can be frustrating to a book publishing professional with more business savvy.

4. MS and MSS

No, I am not talking about that archaic notion of women in the 1950s attending colleges and universities to attain their “Mrs. Degrees.”

MS stands for manuscript and MSS is the plural of manuscript.

This abbreviation is widely used among publishers and literary agencies, often without even a second thought given to whether or not an author might know the term. It might be easy to miss MS as just two simple letters in an email, but whenever you see this, know that your manuscript is being referenced.

5. P&L

As far as book publishing terms go, you might be familiar with this term because many industries use profit and loss statements in calculating business decisions and expenditures.

P&L stands for profit & loss statement.

While you’d think book publishing was an exact science, it’s far more subjective. Publishers are sometimes surprised by books that become surprise mega-bestsellers. Or the opposite: books they thought would be mega-bestsellers that tragically underperformed.

Before a book publisher commits to acquiring a book, and therefore paying a book advance, they dogmatically run that P&L anyway. This is usually a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet, containing formulas that calculate what the profits (royalties, special sales, additional advances from licensing, etc.) on the book might be, against the publisher’s losses (book advance, cost of production, shipping, warehousing, etc.).

You might then wonder where the publisher comes up with potential profits. That brings us back to those comps. Book publishers look to the comp titles for potential success of the book. They evaluate sales of a given title on Nielsen Bookscan’s reporting (now Power BI).

Now you can see why it’s all about the comps.

6. D&A

It’s ironic that this phonetically sounds like “DNA,” because this phase makes up much of the life structure of a book publishing deal and is one of the most commonly-used book publishing terms.

D&A refers to when the manuscript is delivered & accepted.

Usually a large portion of a book advance is placed on the delivery and acceptance of the manuscript to help incentivize the author and accounting easier for the publisher.

By allocating different portions of the advance on a signing payment, D&A payment, and/or publication payment, rather than paying out all the money on signing, book publishers are able to spend their money more easily on other projects and book publishing functions that require financial resources.

Most book publishers will not release the delivery and acceptance portion of a book advance until the manuscript is accepted and made press-ready for final copy editing and proofreading stage, before printing. This also helps to ensure the publisher finds the manuscript in a suitable shape before publication.

7. Pub date

No, your literary agent or editor is not asking you out for drinks…

Pub date is short for “publication date” or the day that a book publishes.

For any happy author, this is your book’s most important day, its birth date.

Oddly enough, many book publishers choose to publish on Tuesdays to time their publications with certain bestseller lists and other publications entering the marketplace. The three-to-four months leading up to publication and the three-to-four months thereafter are crucial times for sales of a new book on the market.

The fall/winter season is usually when the biggest books of the year are published, since it leads into the gift-giving season of the major holidays.

This also makes for the most competitive time of year when a book can be published, so it’s usually advisable that an author trying to make their debut publish in a quieter season. Less competition might be found in the winter/spring season, when books are still bought in large numbers for gift-giving holidays like Easter, Father’s Day, etc.

The quietest time of the year is usually in the spring/summer season. That’s when a book will experience little competition, but this is also a popular beach-reading season, as many readers have free time and school’s out for summer.

Getting started in book publishing means much more than knowing how to write a novel, how many words are in a novel, and how to write a book proposal. This list of key book publishing terms will hopefully help you navigate some of the tricky lingo of our quirky industry!

This is an updated version of a story that was previously published. We update our posts as often as possible to ensure they’re useful for our readers.

As a literary agent at Trident Media Group, a plethora of nonfiction book ideas come across my desk.

So many people think they have a book in them, but it takes more than merely being audacious to see a book through to publication.

What’s unique about nonfiction is it can be sold on a proposal-basis to book publishers. That’s because it’s idea-driven, as opposed to fiction, which needs to be sold on a fully-written and polished manuscript.

How to write a book proposal for nonfiction

Want to write your own nonfiction book proposal? Use these guidelines as your template, with each section on their own page(s).

Here’s what you should include when you write a book proposal.

1. Title page

This is simple enough. Add the title and/or subtitle (separated by a colon or on a new line) and “A Proposal by” followed by your name.

2. Contents

As with a book’s table of contents (TOC) listing the chapters, a nonfiction book proposal will have a TOC page listing the individual sections and page numbers of the proposal.

Look at most any TOC inside a book to get a sense of what this page will look like.

3. Proposed title(s)

Slightly different from the Title Page section of the book proposal, this is where alternative titles and subtitles can be proposed in a list format.

4. Author(s)

The author(s) name(s) of the book proposal will be listed here. Titles and suffixes can be excluded.

5. One-sentence description

In a one-sentence tagline/hook sort of fashion, capture what the book is about in its entirety.

This can be a stressful practice for authors as storytellers by nature, but it’s good to learn to speak about your book concisely.

6. Categories

Categories and subcategories the book will fall into are listed here.

For example: motivational self-help, personal transformation/growth, philosophy, positive psychology, etc. You can find a more indepth guide on keywords and categories, or purchase a tool like Publisher Rocket.

7. Quotes

This is a section for inspirational or framing quotes that one would see in the opening pages of a book.

In a business book, a writer might want to quote Warren Buffet, or in a technology book, Steve Jobs. A poem or short passage from a book could even go there.

Limiting this section to a few quotes is ideal.

8. Audience

In a paragraph or two, add the target demographic(s) for the book.

A testament of the public’s powerful desire and current trends around the topic could also be listed here.

9. Purpose and need

On a much deeper level, this section tells us why we as readers need to read this book, and why now? In a simple way, the reader has a problem or a yearning, and this book fulfills that need with its purpose.

It’s OK to take a page or so to explain.

10. Unique angles

Explain how the book will carve out its place in a busy marketplace of similar books. Some of the takeaways that can only be experienced from this very book should be shared here, perhaps in bulleted format.

11. Reader benefits

What will the reader gain from reading this book? This section answers that question with a number of benefits to the reader.

Will the reader experience joy? Will they feel a part of something bigger than themselves? Tell us here in this section along a short list.

12. Potential endorsers

This section is devoted to people of note who could provide advance praise/blurbs for the forthcoming book.

They might even be people of note who would be willing to write an introduction or forward to the book. Not only names should be listed here, but titles and why these are important endorsements.

13. Book structure overview

List the format, eventual word count (preferably within normal or appropriate range), page count, and deadline by which a finished manuscript could be turned into the publisher (should you get a contract).

14. About the author(s)

Can you guess what you do here? Write a little something about yourself!

It can be as simple as one paragraph or a couple of pages. Relevant writing experience, credentials, awards/accolades, previous publications, fun facts, links to author sites and social media pages (as well as the number of social media followers, if impressive), fun personal facts, and contact info can be listed here.

For nonfiction, it’s not enough to have a good idea to write about. The author must be an authority on the subject matter. In other words, author platform is key. (This is different than fiction, which is less reliant on author platform.)

15. Sales history of previous books

For authors with previously published books, this is a list of titles, along with publisher name and publication date.

Below that should be the total sales numbers on the book, from publication-to-date.

If a book from this list was translated into other languages, had a film/TV adaptation, or was turned into an audiobook, that can be mentioned here, too.

16. Chapter outlines

Provide a sparse outline that breaks down each chapter by name and number into a one or two-sentence description, followed by bulleted chapter contents and/or very short description.

17. Bonus content

Have ideas for any fun bonuses, such as activities or interactive/online content having to do with the book? Add those here.

18. Marketing plan

The sky’s the limit!

Share what you and/or the publisher might do as marketing and publicity behind the book’s publication. For a full book marketing plan, check out this article.

19. Sample chapters

Include 3-5 fully-written and polished sample chapters from the forthcoming manuscript.

How long should the book proposal be?

With all of this information, you’ll likely end up with a book proposal that’s dozens of pages long.

Nonfiction book proposals can top out around 50-75 pages, not including sample chapters. Add in those samples, and you’ll have a complete proposal ready to be considered by a literary agent!

Need guidance for how to write a book proposal?

This course on Book Proposals from Chad Allen is one we recommend for authors. We have found it extremely helpful.

This is an updated version of a story that was previously published. We update our posts as often as possible to ensure they’re useful for our readers.