Glossary

We’ve curated a glossary of terms regarding all things writing and publishing related. From commonly-used terms to abbreviations, our glossary will guide writers and people starting out in publishing, to cut through the jargon and gain a better understanding. 

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Auction
An auction, usually arranged by a literary agent, takes place when multiple publishing houses are interested in acquiring a manuscript and bid against one another to secure the domestic or territorial rights.
Emotional beat
An emotional beat is when the action of a story creates an emotional reaction in your character. The emotional beat is there to show us what will motivate our character's next action. The emotional beats of a story help to outline the arc of a character. For example, in the film Babyteeth, the inciting incident is the very first meeting between Milla and Moses. Milla falls in love very quickly with Moses. When we find Moses robbing her house in the middle of the night, her parents are angry. However, the emotional beat for her parents is seeing Milla happy and giddy with her first love. As Milla has just been diagnosed with cancer, we know that her parent's emotional beat - prioritising their daughter's happiness over their own concerns about Moses - will influence the rest of the film.
Literary agent
Represent writers and their works. They match books to suitable publishers and negotiate publishing contracts and rights deals. They also co-ordinate the business side of publishing on behalf of authors.
Marketing
Involves creating strategies, promotional and preview material (including BLADs) for sales teams to use, organising advertising and representation to the intended market and distribution channels including booksellers. It can involve social media campaigns.
Search engine optimisation
Increasing the visibility of a website so that it achieves a higher ranking in search engine results. This can involve incorporating the keywords that people are likely to type in when searching online into the content and coding of the website, so that search engines are more likely to index it.