Book publishing glossary
This glossary defines 59 terms from book publishing, typesetting, printing and selling — trim size, bleed, gutter, casewrap, lie-flat binding, ISBN, royalty, EPUB, finished hour — each in one plain sentence, then a short explanation with the standard numbers, and a note on how it works in Bindery, Infinite Library’s book studio.
59 terms · By the Infinite Library editorial team · Last updated
Manuscript & structure
The book before it is a book: what a manuscript is, how length is measured, and the pages that surround the text.
ARC (advance reader copy)
An ARC (advance reader copy) is a pre-publication copy sent to reviewers, booksellers and bloggers, marked “uncorrected proof” and not for sale.
Back matter
Back matter is everything after a book’s main text: epilogue, appendix, notes, glossary, bibliography, index, acknowledgements and colophon.
Blurb
A blurb is either the back-cover copy that sells a book in 100–200 words, or a short endorsement from another author or critic printed on the cover.
Chapter
A chapter is a numbered or titled section of a book; most novel chapters run 1,500–5,000 words and open on a new page with extra space above the heading.
Colophon
A colophon is a brief note at the end of a book naming the typefaces, paper, printer and design — a tradition that dates to the first printed books.
Copyright page
The copyright page is the verso of the title page: the © notice, edition and printing, ISBN, publisher or imprint, credits and any disclaimers.
Dedication
A dedication is a short line honouring a person, placed alone on a recto page in the front matter, without a heading, typically after the copyright page.
Epigraph
An epigraph is a short quotation opening a book, part or chapter to set its tone; quoting living authors or song lyrics usually needs permission.
Front matter
Front matter is everything before a book’s main text — half title, title page, copyright page, contents, preface — numbered in roman numerals.
Manuscript
A manuscript is the author’s complete text of a book before it is edited, typeset and published — today usually a Word document or similar file.
Novella
A novella is a short novel of roughly 17,500–40,000 words; a novelette runs 7,500–17,500, under the SFWA definitions most publishers use.
Part
A part is a group of chapters — Part One, Part Two — announced by its own title page, marking a large shift in time, place, point of view or act.
Word count
Word count is the number of words in a manuscript — the trade’s measure of a book’s length, because page count depends on trim size and typesetting.
Typesetting & layout
How words become pages: trim, margins, bleed, and the typographic craft that makes a page read well.
Bleed
Bleed is artwork extended 0.125 in (3 mm) past the trim edge so that, after cutting, colour or images reach the very edge of the page with no white sliver.
Drop cap
A drop cap is an enlarged first letter that drops two or more lines into a chapter’s opening paragraph — a decorative signal that a section begins.
Embedded fonts
Embedded fonts are typeface data packed inside a PDF so it prints identically anywhere; PDF/X requires every font to be embedded, usually as a subset.
Folio
A folio is a printed page number; a blind folio is counted but not printed, and a drop folio sits at the foot of a chapter opener.
Gutter
The gutter is the inner margin where two facing pages meet at the spine; it is set wider than the outer margin because the binding swallows part of it.
Hyphenation
Hyphenation breaks a word across two lines at a syllable boundary so justified text keeps even spacing; good settings allow at most three in a row.
Justification
Justification aligns text to both margins by varying the spaces between words; ragged-right (left-aligned) text keeps the word spaces even instead.
Kerning
Kerning is adjusting the space between two particular letters, such as A and V, so the gap looks even; tracking changes spacing across a whole word.
LaTeX
LaTeX is a typesetting system built on TeX: plain-text markup compiled to PDF, prized for paragraph-level line breaking, hyphenation and mathematics.
Leading
Leading is the baseline-to-baseline distance between lines of type, in points; body text is usually set at 120–145% of the type size, e.g. 11/14.
Ligature
A ligature is one glyph joining two or more letters — fi, fl, ff, ffi, ffl — where the separate shapes would collide; typesetting software inserts them.
Margins
Margins are the blank space around a page’s text block; trade books use about 0.5–1 in per side, the inner margin widened to survive the binding.
Recto and verso
Recto is the right-hand page of an open book and verso the left; rectos carry odd page numbers and are where parts and chapters traditionally begin.
Running head
A running head is the line repeated at the top of each page — usually the book title on the left and the chapter title on the right, with the folio.
Trim size
Trim size is the finished width and height of a book’s pages after the edges are cut — 6 × 9 in and 5.5 × 8.5 in are the most common trade sizes.
Typesetting
Typesetting is turning a manuscript into finished pages: choosing typeface, size, leading, measure and margins, then breaking lines and pages well.
Widows and orphans
A widow is a paragraph’s last line stranded at the top of a page; an orphan is its first line left alone at the bottom. Good typesetting removes both.
Printing & binding
The physical object: bindings, spine arithmetic, print-ready files, paper, proofs and barcodes.
Barcode (EAN-13)
A book’s barcode is the ISBN encoded as EAN-13, often with a five-digit price add-on, printed low on the back cover for shops and warehouses to scan.
Board book
A board book is a children’s book printed on thick laminated paperboard — sturdy enough for babies and toddlers to chew — usually 10 to 24 pages long.
Casewrap hardcover
A casewrap hardcover has its cover art printed and laminated straight onto the boards, with no dust jacket — the standard print-on-demand hardcover.
CMYK vs RGB
RGB is the additive colour model of screens; CMYK is the four-ink model of printing presses. Vivid RGB colours often dull when converted to CMYK.
DPI (dots per inch)
DPI is print resolution in dots per inch; book images need 300 pixels per inch at their printed size, so a 6-inch-wide photo needs 1,800 pixels across.
Dust jacket
A dust jacket is the removable printed paper wrapper around a hardcover, with folded flaps that carry the blurb, author biography and price.
Lie-flat binding
Lie-flat binding — coil, spiral or wire-o — threads the pages onto a coil through punched holes so the book opens completely flat or folds back on itself.
Paper weight (GSM / lb)
Paper weight is stated in gsm or US pounds; book interiors are typically 50–60 lb (75–90 gsm) and covers 80–100 lb or 10–12 pt board.
Perfect binding
Perfect binding glues the pages’ milled spine edge into a wrap-around cover — the standard paperback construction, typically for books of 32 to 800 pages.
Preflight
Preflight is the automated check of a print file — fonts, image resolution, colour, bleed, page size and count — so faults are caught before printing.
Print on demand
Print on demand (POD) prints a book only after it is ordered, one copy at a time, so there is no print run, no inventory and no minimum quantity.
Print-ready PDF (PDF/X)
A print-ready PDF is a file the printer can use as-is: fonts embedded, 300-dpi images, bleed included, correct page size and colour, ideally PDF/X.
Proof copy
A proof copy is a test copy, digital or printed, checked for layout, colour, trim and errors before a book is approved for sale or a full print run.
Saddle stitch
Saddle stitch binds a booklet by folding sheets, nesting them and stapling through the fold; page counts are multiples of four, up to about 48 pages.
Spine width
Spine width is the thickness of a book’s bound edge — page count times paper thickness; a 300-page paperback on cream stock is about 0.75 in (19 mm).
Watermarked proof
A watermarked proof is a typeset PDF with a visible overlay: readable and shareable for review, but not the clean file the printer needs.
Wrap cover
A wrap cover is the single print file holding back cover, spine and front cover side by side, plus bleed, sized from the trim and the spine width.
Publishing & selling
Identifiers and money: ISBNs, imprints, royalties, discounts, returns, direct sales and credits.
AI credits
AI credits are the unit an AI book studio spends on generating text, images and narration, so pricing follows use; in Bindery, proofs stay free.
Imprint
An imprint is the publisher name on a book’s title page, spine and copyright page; big houses run many, and self-publishers often create their own.
ISBN
An ISBN is the 13-digit International Standard Book Number for one edition of a book in one format; paperback, hardcover and ebook each need one.
Returns (returnable books)
Returns are unsold copies a bookshop sends back to the publisher for full credit; most physical bookshops only stock books that are returnable.
Royalty
A royalty is the author’s share of each sale, a percentage of list price or net receipts; trade deals pay about 10–15% on print, 25% of net on ebooks.
Storefront (author storefront)
A storefront is an author’s own sales page for a book, selling the paperback, ebook or audiobook direct to readers with no retailer taking a cut.
Wholesale discount
The wholesale discount is the percentage off list price a publisher gives the trade; the full rate is 55%, and bookshops expect at least 40%.
Audio, ebook & formats
The other editions of the same book: EPUB, reflow, audiobooks and translations.
EPUB
EPUB is the open ebook standard — a ZIP of XHTML and CSS that reflows to any screen — accepted by Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play and Amazon KDP alike.
Finished hour (audiobook)
A finished hour is one hour of final, edited audiobook audio — the unit narrators charge by and stores list; about 9,300 words of text make one.
Narrator (audiobook)
The narrator is the voice performing an audiobook — one reader, a full cast, or a synthetic or cloned voice — and the main reason listeners finish it.
Reflowable vs fixed layout
A reflowable ebook repaginates to the reader’s screen and font size; a fixed-layout ebook locks each page’s design, as picture books and comics need.
Translation edition
A translation edition is a book’s complete version in another language — its own text, ISBN and typesetting — rather than a raw machine rendering.
Skip the jargon — make the book
Describe a book or upload a manuscript, and Bindery typesets it, sizes the spine from the real page count and produces printer-validated files. The watermarked proof is always free.
Where to next
Book Formats →
The bindings and trims above as real products: lie-flat cookbooks, casewrap memoirs, saddle-stitched zines, picture books.
Book Tools →
Turn a Word document, PDF, podcast or blog into a typeset book — or a finished book into an audiobook or a translation.
Writing Guides →
The craft library: how to write, outline and structure a book in every genre — word counts and chapter lengths included.
FAQ →
Prices, printing, royalties and rights — the questions authors ask about Infinite Library and Bindery, answered.