General Book Terms Glossary

Below you’ll find a list of terms and their definitions to general book terms.

Author or Illustrator Biography: Personal information and accomplishments of the author or illustrator.

Contract or Publishing Agreement: A legal document that specifies ownership of the rights of the book, which services are being provided, the author’s and publisher’s respective obligations under the agreement, the author’s compensation, and other provisions.

Genre: Specific sub-type or literary category for a book, such as science fiction, self-help, romance, horror, or poetry.

Imprint: The identifying name of a specific line of books available from the publisher. Each publisher may have many imprints.

Public Domain: If a work isn’t legally protected as intellectual property (possibly because its protection has expired), it’s said to be in the “public domain.” Anyone may reproduce, sell, or otherwise use a public domain work without having to obtain permission. (Intellectual property is defined as products of the human mind such as books, inventions, computer programs, songs, movies, and other works. This means that the creator may have control over uses of the work such as reproduction. Intellectual property is recognized under United States copyright, patent, trademark, and other laws.)

PubSmart Technology: A proprietary productivity tool Mill City Press created just for books.

Rights or Subsidiary Rights: Some of the different ways a book can be distributed, including but not limited to, through book clubs, as foreign translations, through excerpts in newspapers and magazines, or as a movie adaptation. The rights to distribute a book in one of these or other extended forms are referred to as “subsidiary rights.”

Royalties: A percentage of the money paid for a book, which the author or illustrator receives out of the proceeds from the sale of each copy.