Writing Words: Publishing Terms

Did you know some books have lovely headbands which serve no practical purpose? And if you think PMS has to do with moody women, you haven't met the Pantone Matching System. Rachel Toor reveals these and many more esoteric publishing terms in A Publishing Primer at The Chronicle of Higher Education online. My favorite entry is the very last one with its little snarky jibes at some controversial authors:

Warranty: Your promise to the publisher that you are who you say you are (Margaret B. Jones!), that you have written the work (Kaavya Viswanathan!), that everything you say is true is true (James Frey!), and that you have the right to be named as author.

Via The Practicing Writer Vol. 5, No. 8: September 2008 newsletter from Dr. Erika Dreifus.