Romance Writer's Basic Guide to Business Terms and Vocabulary

by Robyn DeHart

This month we will start a short series of articles that revisit the basics of romance writing, not so much in terms of plotting and such, but more the business aspects.

Advance: Amount of money paid to the author prior to publication. The advance must be earned by book sales before an author will be paid royalties.
ARC: advanced readers copy
Archetype: based on theories by Carl Jung for defining human roles. There are many classifications of archetypes today, but they serve one basic purpose, creating characters that bring a sort of familiarity to the reader's mind so they are able to easily identify with that character.
Category: also know as series or Harlequins or Silhouettes, these books are part of a numbered series, such as Temptations, Duets, Special Edition, or Super Romance. They range from 50K - 85K words.
Clinch cover: art work on a book that shows the couple in a passionate embrace.
Cover letter: a basic "enclosed you will find" letter that accompanies most manuscripts and partials.
Dump: Cardboard display, usually set up to highlight a certain author's books, or a certain group of books. You will find these in the fronts of bookstores or at the end of aisle where they grab more attention.
Galley: a print out sent to the author that represents what the book will look like upon printing. Galleys allow for any final changes needing to be made.
GMC (based on Debra Dixon's popular book, GMC: Goal, Motivation & Conflict): Goal, motivation and conflict. According to Ms. Dixon each character in a work of fiction should have each of these elements.
Hero's Journey: this is based on the mythic structure of stories as defined by Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces and further explained in Christopher Vogler's The Writer's Journey. It is a step-by-step journey or quest that a character goes on in order to complete their cycle of change. It is best visualized with Fantasy and Science Fiction movies like "Willow" and "Star Wars".
Lead time: amount of time between when a manuscript is purchased and when it is released as a book.
Line: a book (that looks visually like a single-title) yet is part of a line or theme the house has set up, Berkley is famous for these - their Irish Eyes, Friends, and Love Letters are examples.
Partial: usually consists of a cover letter, synopsis and first three chapters sent to an editor or agent for consideration.
PAN: published authors network (RWA published authors)
Print run: the number of books printed.
Proposal: a selling tool used mostly by published authors, can consist of a full partial, but can also be an outline, synopsis or brief idea overview.
Query letter: an introductory letter (often sent alone) that consists of a back-cover type blurb about your book and information about you as a writer.
RWA-Pro: RWA program designed to recognize those who are actively pursuing a writing career. Must prove she has a completed romance manuscript (not less than 40,000 words for adults or 25,000 words for young adults), and has submitted to a literary agent or a publisher and received a rejection.
SASE: a self-addressed stamped envelope.
SASP: a self-addressed stamped postcard.
Scene (as defined by Dwight Swain's concept of scene and sequel): the action of the story, this is the moment by moment of what's going in your story.
Sell-through: percentage of sales of the books actually shipped to stores.
Sequel (as defined by Dwight Swain's concept of scene and sequel): this is the basic emotional reaction to the action of what happened in the scene, think introspection. This is theoretically where the character should come up with what to do next in their quest.
Single-title: a book that can stand alone, these are published by houses like Avon, St. Martin's Press and Pocket.
Step-back cover: a two-page cover where the front shows the title, the author's name and possibly some scenery, but opens up to a cover that generally depicts the couple.
Word count: in publishing terms this isn't based on the amount of words are actually on your page, but rather what produces a manuscript page. Manuscript word count is generally found by approximating 250 words a page.

Robyn Ratliff has been a member of San Antonio Romance Authors since 1996 and has served as President and Webmaster. She is currently working on revisions for a historical set in Victorian England.

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