Glossary

Self-publishing & book-writing glossary

53 terms you will meet between your first draft and your first sale — from ISBNs and trim sizes to KDP Select, wholesale discounts and beat sheets — explained in plain English, with what each one means for an independent author.

A

AI disclosure (KDP)Rights & legalWhen publishing on Amazon KDP you're asked whether your book contains AI-generated text, images or translations. Here's what that question means.
ARC (advance reader copy)Selling & distributionAn ARC is a pre-release copy of a book given to reviewers and readers before launch so reviews and buzz are ready on publication day.
ASINPublishingAn ASIN (Amazon Standard Identification Number) is the 10-character ID Amazon assigns to every product it sells, including Kindle eBooks.
Author copiesPrinting & filesAuthor copies are printed copies of your own book that you buy at roughly the printing cost, for events, giveaways, reviewers or hand-selling.

B

C

D

Developmental editWriting & editingA developmental edit is a big-picture edit of a manuscript's structure, plot, characters, pacing and argument, done before line-level editing.

E

F

G

I

K

L

M

ManuscriptWriting & editingA manuscript is the author's text of a book before it is typeset and published — the draft you write, revise, edit and send to editors or agents.

N

NovellaWriting & editingA novella is a work of fiction longer than a short story but shorter than a novel — often defined as roughly 17,500 to 40,000 words.

P

Q

Query letterWriting & editingA query letter is a short, one-page pitch an author sends to a literary agent to ask if they'd like to read the manuscript.

R

S

T

Trim sizePrinting & filesTrim size is the final width and height of a printed book's pages after trimming, such as 6" × 9" or 5.5" × 8.5".

W

Store rules, royalty rates and file specifications change — where a figure depends on a platform's policy, confirm it in that platform's current help pages. Entries on copyright and other legal topics are general information, not legal advice.

Free self-publishing calculators

Spine width, cover size, page count and KDP royalties.

Where to self-publish

Step-by-step guides for KDP, IngramSpark, Apple Books, Kobo and more.

Write and format your book with Inkora

Plan, draft and edit your book, then export a print-ready interior PDF, a full-wrap cover and an EPUB — with the trim, bleed and spine maths from this glossary done for you.

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