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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Saddle stitch binding
Securing pages through stitches or staples in the spine of a book or booklet.
Sales
Involves using promotional and preview material to sell the title to bookshops and online retailers so that they will stock it.
Sales tracking
Sales of individual titles can be monitored daily through online sales tracking tools such as Amazon Vendor Central or Amazon Author Central. Nielsen also provides print book sales data.
Sample assessment
In self-publishing, this is often free and can refer to when the author receives a sample of the editor’s work (eg. examples of their comments on two to three pages of the author's manuscript), so that the author can decide whether to purchase that editorial service. It can also refer to when editors assess a sample of the author's work to see what service suits the author's writing best.
Sans serif
A style of printing letters with all lines of equal thickness and no serifs. Sans faces are less easy to read than seriffed faces and they are rarely used for continuous text, although some magazines use them for text matter.