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“To God, who is the
source of every good idea (old or new), which writers accidentally
discover or unintentionally steal, or by grace glimpse and then
wrestle into fresh words for strangers, who in turn pass them on to
others - in a wonderful process of receiving and giving that's a lot
like Christmas.” ~ Brian D. McLaren, A Generous Orthodoxy
“A house without books is like a room without windows. No man has a
right to bring up children without surrounding them with books. . .
. Children learn to read being in the presence of books.” ~ Horace
MANN (1796-1859)
“All books are divisible into two classes—the books of the hour and
the books of all time.” ~ John RUSKIN
“For whatever is truly wondrous and fearful in man, never yet was put
into words or books.” ~ Moby Dick, chapter 110. Herman MELVILLE
“When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas,
also the books, and above all the parchments. (2 Timothy 4:13) In an
1863 sermon, “Paul – His Cloak and His Books,“ C. H. Spurgeon said
of Paul: “He was inspired, and yet he wants books! He had been
preaching for thirty years, and yet he wants books! He had seen the
Lord, and yet he wants books! He had a wider experience than most
men do, and yet he wants books! He had been caught up into the third
heaven, and had heard things that it was not lawful for a man to
utter, and yet he wants books! He had written a major part of the
New Testament, and yet he wants books!”
“A good novel tells us the truth about its hero, but a bad novel
tells us the truth about its author.” ~ G. K. CHESTERTON
“I have always imagined that Paradise will be a kind of library.” ~
Jorge Luis BORGES (1899-1986)
“In America only the successful writer is important, in France all
writers are important, in England no writer is important, and in
Australia you have to explain what a writer is.” ~ Geoffrey Cottrell
“Writing is not like painting where you add. It is not what you put
on the canvas that the reader sees. Writing is more like a sculpture
where you remove, you eliminate in order to make the work visible.
Even those pages you remove somehow remain.” ~ Elie Wiesel (b. 1928)
“. . . writing is not a performance but a generosity.” ~ Brenda Ueland
(1891-1985)
“Writing [for the novelist] is not an activity, but a condition. That
is why one simply can't resume the work when one has a job and a
free half-day. Reading is the conveyance of this condition.” ~ Robert
Musil (1880-1942)
“Sit down and put down everything that comes into your head and then
you're a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff's
worth, without pity, and destroy most of it.” ~ COLETTE
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- advance - money paid by publisher
to a writer prior to the publication of a book, likely in
installments and against any royalty money earned
- agent - liaison between writer and
editors/publishers, gets a commission when work is accepted
- anthology - selection of writing by
one or various authors gathered into one volume
- b&w - black/white photographs
- backlist - books not published in
current season but still in print
- bio - biography
- boilerplate - a standardized
contract with no changes made on it
- byline - name of author appearing
with a published piece
- cc - contributor’s copy
- chapbook - small booklet, usually
paperback, of poetry, or other short writings
- circ. - circulation
- clean copy - manuscript without
errors, wrinkles, words crossed out, etc.
- clip - photocopy or tear sheet of
previously published piece
- coffee table book - oversize book,
mostly illustrations
- commercial novels - written to
appeal to a broad readership
- concept - summary of screenplay,
written before an outline or treatment
- copyediting - editing for grammar,
etc, not subject matter
- copyright - the right to use or
publish a manuscript (See more about copyrights)
- cover letter - letter explaining
contents of complete manuscript sent, or a book proposal. This is
not a query letter.
- defamation - written or spoken
injury to the reputation of a living person or organization. If it
is true, it is not defamatory. (See "libel" and "slander")
- DTP - desktop publishing done on a
personal computer
- electronic submission - manuscript
sent by e-mail or on a computer disk
- fair use - copyright law says short
passages from copyrighted material may be used without infringing
on the owner’s rights, usually done for reviews, quotes
- feature - human interest piece, or
lead article in a magazine
- filler - short item used to fill
out a column or blank space in a publication, joke, anecdote,
puzzle, quote, and so on.
- first-person - story is told from
the point of view of the narrator, uses “I”
- formula story - story told with a
predictable plot structure
- freelancer - writer who earns all
or part of their income by contracting to do a body of work for
someone, either an individual or publisher
- Free writing - This exercise gets you started
writing. You begin without a predetermined focus and simply use
the act of writing to make yourself write. You could pick a word
or a phrase, set a timer, and begin to write whatever comes to
mind about this topic for a period of time, say ten or fifteen
ten minutes. Or you can just start by writing whatever thoughts
enter your head, even if it's "I can't think of anything to
write." Free writing trains you to begin writing whenever you
pick up a pen or sit at your keyboard.
- front-list - publisher’s list of
current new books
- galleys - first version of a
typeset manuscript, not yet divided into pages
- genre - general classification of
writing such as poetry or fiction, or the categories within such
classifications, such as sonnet, mysteries, romances, etc.
- ghost writer - writer puts into
article or book the ideas and experiences of another person
- hard copy - printed out version of
something written on a computer
- honorarium - token payment either
money or a byline or copies of the publication
- hypertext - words linked to other
text, illustrations, or pages on a website
- illustrations - photographs,
graphics, artwork
- imprint - name given to a
publisher’s line (s) of books (Crystal Sea Books is an imprint of
Beacon Hill Press)
- IRC - International Reply Coupon
- ISBN - International Standard Book
Number, machine readable, gives each book a unique identifier.
This number is
a marketing must and available through
Bowker.
- kill fee - payment for work
assigned but not purchased
- lead time - time between
acquisition of work and when it is actually published
- libel - written act of defamation.
- ms - manuscript
- manuscript - manuscripts
- mass market - rack-size paperbacks
often sold in airports, supermarkets, and other places that appeal
to impulse buyers, but now in many bookstores.
- mid-list - publisher’s list of
books not expected to be big sellers, usually by new/unknown
writers
- multiple submissions - sending more
than one poem, story, joke, etc. at the same time
- net royalty - payment based on the
money a publisher receives on a book sale after bookseller’s
discounts, sales discounts and returns
- on spec - editor expresses interest
in proposed idea, agrees to consider finished manuscript or
publication, but is not obligated to purchase it
- outline - summary of a book’s
contents, can take various forms
- over-the-transom - submission of
unsolicited material to an editor
- parallel submission - sending
several articles, not the same but developed from one idea, to
similar magazines
- payment on acceptance - editor
sends cheque when decision is made to use the piece
- payment on publication - money not
sent to writer until the piece is published
- pen name or pseudonym - use of a name other than legal
name on articles or books when writer wants to be anonymous
- plagiarism - using the work of
someone else and passing it off as your own
- POD - print on demand, high speed
laser printed book when it is ordered or in small batches
- proofreading - reading to correct
typographical errors
- proposal - summary of proposed
nonfiction book
- public domain - material never
copyrighted, or the copyright has expired
- query - a letter introducing an
idea to a publication
- release - statement that your idea
is original, never sold elsewhere, and you are selling negotiated
rights to the idea
- remainders - unsold hardcover books
that publishers do not want to store
- royalties - percent of the money
from book sales that goes to the author
- SASE - self-addressed, stamped
envelope
- SASP - self-addressed, stamped
postcard
- SAE - self-addressed envelope
- screenplay - script for a film to
be shown in theaters
- self-publishing - author keeps all
income, but pays for production and marketing of the book
- serial - published periodically,
such as a magazine or newspaper
- sidebar - short piece accompanying
a larger article, often explains one part of the topic
- simultaneous submissions - sending
the same piece to several publishers at the same time. Some
publisher refuse these submissions
- slander - verbal act of defamation.
- slant - approach or style that will
appeal to readers of any particular magazine
- slush pile - stack of unsolicited
manuscript received by a publisher or editor
- subsidy (or vanity) publisher -
charges the author for producing the book rather than paying the
author as a royalty publisher does
- synopsis - brief summary of a
story, novel or play, usually part of a book proposal
- tear sheet - page from a
publication containing your printed article, poem, etc.
- TOC - table of contents
- Trade publishing market - books
sold to "the trade" — to booksellers or wholesalers, usually
hardcover with jackets. Paperbacks are reissues of trade books or
originals, but resemble trade books in size and quality
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