Get a Literary Agent: The Complete Guide to Securing Representation for Your Work (26 page)

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ACQUISITIONS EDITOR.
The person responsible for originating and/or acquiring new publishing projects (i.e., books). Your agent will pitch your books to acquisitions editors.

ADAPTATION.
The process of rewriting a composition (novel, story, film, article, play) into a form suitable for some other medium, such as television or the stage.

ADVANCE.
Money a publisher pays a writer prior to book publication, usually paid in installments such as one-half upon signing the contract and one-half upon delivery of the complete, satisfactory manuscript. An advance is paid against the royalty money to be earned by the book. Agents take their percentage off the top of the advance as well as from the royalties earned.

APP (APPLICATION).
A computer program downloaded onto electronic devices—such as laptops, phones, or e-readers—that serves a specific purpose. Apps are designed to be user-friendly alternatives to doing the same task through an Internet window.

AUCTION.
Multiple publishers sometimes bid for the acquisition of a book manuscript with excellent sales prospects. The bids are for the amount of the author’s advance, advertising and promotional expenses, royalty percentage, etc. Auctions are conducted by agents.

AUTHOR BIO.
A brief summary about the writer that includes work experience, educational experience, previous publishing history (if applicable), and social media links where interested individuals can learn more about the author.

AUTHOR COPIES.
An author usually receives about ten free copies of his hardcover book from the publisher; he’ll get more from a paperback firm. He can obtain additional copies at a price that has been reduced by an author’s discount (usually 50 percent of the retail price).

BACKLIST.
A publisher’s list of books that were not published during the current season but that are still in print.

BACKSTORY.
The history of what has happened before the action in your story takes place; events that affect a character’s current behavior.

BLURB.
The copy on paperback-book covers or hardcover-book dust jackets, either promoting the book and the author or featuring testimonials from book reviewers or well-known people in the book’s field.

BOOK PROPOSAL.
A document, usually twelve to fifty pages in length, which lays out the concept and marketing ideas for a nonfiction book. For writers selling nonfiction, a book proposal is their key selling tool.

CLIPS.
These are samples from newspapers, websites, or magazines of your published work. Also called “tear sheets,” though that term is only used when the clips you send are physical copies.

CLOSED TO SUBMISSIONS.
A phrase used by agents when they are currently not accepting queries of any kind from new writers.

CONFLICT.
A prime ingredient of fiction that usually represents some obstacle to a character’s (i.e., the protagonist’s) goals.

COPYEDITING.
Editing of a manuscript for writing style, grammar, punctuation, and factual accuracy.

COPYRIGHT.
A means to protect an author’s work. A copyright is a proprietary right designed to give the creator of a work the power to control that work’s reproduction, distribution, and public display or performance, as well as its adaptation to other forms. All written works are copyrighted the moment they are created.

DEAL MEMO.
The memorandum of agreement between a publisher and author that precedes the actual contract and includes important issues such as royalty, advance, rights, distribution, and option clauses.

DIALOGUE.
An essential element of fiction. Dialogue consists of conversations between two or more people and can be used heavily or sparsely.

E-BOOK.
A book in electronic form—read on reading devices such as a computer, Nook, iPad, or Kindle.

ENHANCED E-BOOK.
An e-book that has added features and interactive elements, such as embedded videos, hyperlinks to articles, supplemental materials, updated images, and more.

ELECTRONIC RIGHTS (ALSO CALLED DIGITAL RIGHTS).
Rights dealing with electronic/multimedia formats (the Internet, digital downloads, CD-ROMs, electronic magazines).

EXCLUSIVE.
An agreement, usually for a set period of time such as one month, guaranteeing that an agent or editor is the only one looking at a particular manuscript.

FILM RIGHTS.
May be sold or optioned by the agent or author to a person in the film industry, enabling the book to be made into a movie.

FOREIGN RIGHTS.
Translation or reprint rights to be sold abroad.

FOREIGN-RIGHTS AGENT.
An agent who sells book rights to a country other than the first book agent’s country. Typically, an author surrenders a 20 percent commission to his agents for any foreign rights sales, as opposed to the standard 15 percent commission.

GENRE.
Refers to either a general classification of writing, such as a novel, poem, or short story, or to the categories within those classifications, such as romance, mystery, or fantasy.

GHOSTWRITING.
A writer puts into literary form the words, ideas, or knowledge of another person under that person’s name. Some agents will pair ghostwriters with celebrities or experts.

HIGH CONCEPT.
A story idea easily expressed in a one-line description.

HOOK.
Aspect of the work that sets it apart from others and draws in the reader.

IMPRINT.
The name applied to a publisher’s specific line of books.

IRC (INTERNATIONAL REPLY COUPON).
Buy this at a post office to enclose with material sent outside the country to cover the cost of return postage. The recipient exchanges the coupon for stamps in her country.

ISBN (INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BOOK NUMBER).
ISBN is a tool used for both ordering and cataloging purposes as well as a means for tracking the sales history of a particular book.

LIBEL.
A form of defamation or injury to a person’s name or reputation. Written or published defamation is called “libel,” whereas spoken defamation is known as “slander.”

LOG LINE.
A one-sentence plot description.

MIDLIST.
Those titles on a publisher’s list expected to have limited sales. Midlist books are mainstream, not literary, scholarly, or genre.

NOVELIZATION.
A novel created from the script of a popular movie and published in paperback. Also called a movie tie-in.

NOVELLA.
A short novel or long short story, usually 20,000 to 50,000 words. Also called a novelette.

ONE-TIME RIGHTS.
This right allows a short story or portions of a fiction or nonfiction book to be published again without violating the contract.

OPTION.
The act of a producer buying film rights to a book for a limited period of time (usually six months or one year) rather than purchasing said rights in full. A book can be optioned multiple times by different production companies.

OPTION CLAUSE.
A contract clause giving a publisher the right to publish an author’s next book. This is a very important term that your agent will negotiate with the publisher so as to give you, the author, the most avenues for selling future books.

OUT OF PRINT.
A phrase describing books that no longer sell many print copies and are therefore not printed any longer. The definition of this term, as well as its role in contracts, is changing because of the fact that e-books are technically “in print” forever.

PLATFORM.
A writer’s speaking experience, interview skills, website, social media, and other abilities that help form a following of potential buyers for his book.

P.O.D. (PRINT ON DEMAND).
A publisher that only creates copies of a book once it has been ordered, eliminating the cost of overstock and unused print copies.

PROOFREADING.
Close reading and correction of a manuscript’s typographical errors.

QUERY.
A letter, usually around one page long, written to an agent or a potential market to elicit interest in a writer’s work.

REFERRAL.
When a writer passes on the name or work of another writer to his agent.

RELEASE.
A document stating that your idea is original, that it has never been sold to anyone else, and that you are selling negotiated rights to the idea upon payment. Some agents may ask that you sign a release before they request pages and review your work.

REMAINDERS.
Leftover stock of a book that the publisher believes will not sell at a cover price. Remainders are typically sold at a deep discount so the publisher can recoup some expenses and costs.

REPRINT RIGHTS.
The right to republish a book after its initial printing.

ROYALTIES.
A percentage of the retail price paid to the author for each copy of the book that is sold. Agents take their percentage from the royalties earned and from the author’s advance.

SASE (SELF-ADDRESSED STAMPED ENVELOPE).
One should be included with all mailed correspondence if you want a reply via mail. An alternative to this is a self-addressed, stamped postcard.

SERIAL RIGHTS.
The right for a newspaper or magazine to publish sections of a manuscript.

SIMULTANEOUS SUBMISSION.
The common practice of sending the same query or manuscript to several agents or publishers at the same time.

SLUSH PILE.
A stack of unsolicited submissions in the office of an editor, agent, or publisher.

SUBSIDIARY RIGHTS.
All rights other than book publishing rights included in a book publishing contract, such as paperback rights, book club rights, and movie rights. Part of an agent’s job is to negotiate those rights and advise you on which to sell and which to keep.

SUSPENSE.
The element of both fiction and some nonfiction that makes the reader uncertain about the outcome. Suspense can be created through almost any element of a story, including the title, characters, plot, time restrictions, and word choice.

SYNOPSIS.
A brief summary of a story, novel, or play. Unlike a query letter or log line, a synopsis is a front-to-back explanation of the work—and will give away the story’s ending.

TERMS.
The agreed-upon financial provisions in a contract, whether between writer and agent or writer and editor.

TOC (TABLE OF CONTENTS).
A listing at the beginning of a book indicating chapter titles and their corresponding page numbers. It can also include chapter descriptions.

TRANSLATION RIGHTS.
Sold to a foreign agent or foreign publisher.

UNSOLICITED MANUSCRIPT.
An unrequested full manuscript sent to an editor, agent, or publisher.

VET.
Editorial term for submitting a book manuscript to an outside expert (such as a lawyer) for review before publication. Memoirs are frequently vetted to confirm factual accuracy before the book is published.

ACTION/ADVENTURE.
A genre of fiction in which action is the key element, sometimes even overshadowing characters and theme. Note that these genre terms are rarely applied in the literary world and are used mostly to describe film.

AMISH FICTION.
A newer genre of books that focuses on Amish characters and lifestyle—sometimes touching on the inspirational genre. Examples include
The Shunning
by Beverly Lewis and
The Choice
by Suzanne Woods Fisher.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY.
An autobiography is a book-length account of a person’s entire life written by the subject himself.

BIOGRAPHY.
A biography is an account of a person’s life (or the lives of a family or close-knit group) written by someone other than the subject. The work is set within the historical framework (i.e., the unique economic, social, and political conditions) existing during the subject’s life.

BOARD BOOK.
Also called “books for toddlers,” board books are very simple texts that focus on elements like colors, numbers, and animals. They target children before they can read (ages one to four). They derive their name from the fact that most are printed on thick cardboard pages.

BOOK CLUB FICTION.
See
mainstream fiction
.

CHAPTER BOOK.
A category of children’s books intended for intermediate readers, usually ages six to eleven. Chapter books are often the first step for children who have learned to read and are past picture books.

CHICK LIT.
Stories that focus on female characters, with lighthearted, “breezy” themes of romance, careers, and, oftentimes, fashion and shopping. While chick lit peaked as a genre during the success of the television show
Sex and the City
, it is now considered a “challenging” genre to publish or market, and is usually pitched and marketed today as “light women’s fiction.”

CHRISTIAN LIVING.
A category of books focused on self-help but with a Christian overview and tone. Christian living titles can be about parenting, marriage, family life, divorce, breast cancer, healing, health, faith journeys, spiritual challenges, leadership, and devotionals.

COMMERCIAL FICTION.
Novels designed to appeal to a broad audience. Commercial fiction is a broad term that can mean different things to different agents, but it is typically used as a synonym for “genre fiction.”