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. 

Imperative
The mood of verbs used in commands and requests. In English verbs the form of the imperative is identical to the infinitive.   A more extensive list of grammatical terms is included in The Right Word: A Writer’s Toolkit of Grammar, Vocabulary and Literary Terms (Bloomsbury 2021)  © Bloomsbury Publishing Plc 2021
 
Ingram
A book and e-book distributor, and a print-on-demand service provider.
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.
Print-on-demand (POD)
The facility to print and bind books at short notice without the need for a large print run, using digital technology. When an order comes through, a digital file of the book can be printed automatically and individually.
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.