Even though it's close to Valentines' day, this post isn't going to be flowery, romantic, or sexy. But it is essential for every author to know.

This publishing industry has a lot of terminology that every author should know. Just like visiting a new country, if you don't understand the language, you'll get lost. So, today I wanted to take some time to go over some of the most popular terminology you will encounter on your publishing path.

Here is a list of common terms that will help you understand the way the water flows in our virtual landscape, the way this industry functions, and where you can focus your efforts most profitably.

Common Publishing Terms

ISBN—International Standard Book Number—this number specifies a specific work and the specific format that work is in. A hardcover book has a different ISBN than a paperback. A large-print edition gets a unique ISBN number, as does an EPUB. There is only one legal place to purchase ISBN numbers in the US: Bowker.

PCN and LCCN—Library of Congress Control numbers. The PCN is a Pre-assigned Control Number. This is what most indie authors are going to have in the US. You may choose to get a PCN or not.

There is no cost associated, but you are required to send a printed copy of the book to the Library of Congress after you have completed it. These numbers apply to printed, physical books, not ebooks.

You can sign up for the program for free at the Library of Congress.

EPUB—this is the widely accessible industry format for ebooks. Not all ereaders can read an EPUB, but many can. I suspect in the future, those that do not read EPUB will move in that direction. EPUB is not a software, but a format.

MOBI—the standard format used by Kindle and Amazon devices. Amazon can convert your EPUB to MOBI during the upload, or you can convert it yourself using Calibre or other conversion software. I find that Amazon does a good job with basic conversions as long as I keep my styles clean and straightforward. Smashwords and Amazon will create a MOBI file from a DOC file.

*note: amazon has since stopped using this format and moved to EPUB, but this term is still thrown around from time to time.

Time for a breath...

PDF—portable document format. This format is best for print and is what you will be sending to your printer. PDFs come in different "standards"—what is encoded in them is different. Your printer will likely request a specific standard. Don't worry too much about this. If you find that you need a specific standard, most likely your software will be able to export in that format. It is just a matter of clicking the right buttons during export.

Copyright Page — This is where you put your copyright, identification numbers, and disclaimers. You may also list credits for cover artist, fonts, or other specialized information here.

Front matter—the title page, copyright, dedication, table of contents, etc. Basically, the information that goes in the front of the book, before the story starts. Some authors include reviews in this space.

Be careful. Most online vendors allow readers to sample your book. If you have too much front matter, they may not get a good taste of your book, and that can cost you sales.

Back matter—the material that goes after the end of the book. This may include sample chapters, acknowledgments or advertisements. Use caution with advertising in your books. Advertising a Nook book in a Kindle book will get you in trouble with your vendors. When in doubt, don't. DO link back to your website.

And there is still more...

HTML or XHTML—HyperText Markup Language or eXtensible HyperText Markup Language—the language of the Internet. 

CSS—Cascading Style Sheets—these go with HTML. A style sheet will define how to display the different parts of the document. For example, it may say that the chapter titles should be in a larger font and centered, while the paragraphs are left-aligned with first-line indents. These can be fancy, but simple is often better.

Distribution—the process of getting books to buyers. While it is possible to sell your book directly from your website, this is not going to get it in the hands of enough readers unless you are JK Rowling. You'll be giving your book to a distributor to send it out to bookstores, both physical and virtual. 

Distributors are companies like Smashwords, CreateSpace, Lightning Source, and many others that take your book and get it listed where you want it. In a perfect world, those distributors would also get the books into bookstores, but that is extremely rare for an indie-published book

POD—Print on Demand—this is the physical portion of our modern publishing environment. Books do not have to be purchased by the carton. As a writer, you no longer need to order $10,000 worth of books in advance. Books can be purchased by the readers through various venues. The book-seller will order the book through your distributor. The distributor will have the book printed and ship it to the consumer. You will be surprised how quickly this process happens. 

Whew. That's quite a list. And while the above list is long, I am positive I have forgotten something.

I have to thank the wonderful Lisa Norman for some of the information in this post because some times it takes a team!

Let's help educate each other. If you can think of some other terms I should add above, let's move the conversation to the comments.