Professional Development
Five publishers backed by larger corporate entities: Penguin Random House, MacMillan, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, and HarperCollins
Who are the Big Five?
The total amount of money paid to an author to acquire the rights to publish their book. Typical milestones include signing, D&A of sample materials, D&A of the full manuscript, publication, 6 months post-publication, 12 months post-publication
What is an Advance?
Big picture edits such as the plot, arcs, character development, pacing, scenes, etc
What are Dev Edits or Developmental Edits?
A legal right granted to every author to protect their intellectual property rights.
What is Copyright?
Book categories, e.g. fantasy, Romance, thriller, mystery, sci-fi
What is Genre?
A professional membership organization of qualified literary agents designed to help members maintain and expand their professional skills, as well as stay informed about the publishing industry. Bonus: there is a Canadian equivalent.
Who is the AALA? Who is PACLA?
The printed price on the back of a book
What is List Price?
Editing the book on a sentence level, including flow, structure, word choice, pacing, etc
What are Line Edits?
Royalty rates that increase as more copies of an individual book format are sold
What is an Escalator?
These are books that are similar to your author’s work in some way
What are Comp Titles or Comparative Titles?
A secondary agent at another agency helping to sell specific rights. Can also refer to a partner within the same agency.
What is a Co-Agent?
A book has multiple editors interested and a bidding war occurs
What is an Auction?
This is the process of editing, also at the sentence level, focusing on grammar, punctuation, consistency, and clarity. It’s more technical and about correctness
What is Copy Editing?
Advance payments due at this time are not paid when the author sends their final manuscript to the publisher, but when the publisher is done with all edits and “accepts” the material as final.
What is D&A or Delivery and Acceptance?
A one sentence pitch that perfectly outlines a manuscript's premise.
What is an Elevator Pitch?
When royalties surpass the advance and the author begins receiving additional payments
What is Earning Out?
An editor has pounced on a manuscript before others and makes a generous offer to acquire it before any other editor can make an offer
What is a Pre-empt?
Final process of editing that happens after typesetting has been done. Also referred to as "pass-pages"
What is Proofreading?
A clause that goes into publishing agreements which grants the publisher the right to see the author’s next work before submitting it elsewhere
What is an Option Clause?
A book premise that can be pitched in one sentence or less and stands out in a crowded market
What is High Concept?
Information about the work; includes bibliographic data, BISAC codes, key words and other data that help categorize a title for booksellers
What is Metadata?
A spreadsheet that calculates a manuscript’s potential earnings over time and formats
What is a P&L or Profit and Loss Statement?
Often combined with developmental edits in house, this stage of editing works on the big picture to ensure the story flows and makes sense
What is Structural/ Substantive Editing?
A contract that binds all parties to agree to not discuss the terms within.
What is an NDA or Nondisclosure Agreement?
The summary of a book that is used to pitch the book to editors, in-house acquisitions teams, marketing and sales teams, booksellers, and readers. Can also be found on the back of a book.
What is Copy?