Ever wonder what editors, publishers and critics mean when they describe books as “lyrical,” “provocative” or “ripped from the headlines”? Let industry veterans explain it to you. I asked experts on Twitter to decode common publishing terms and attach the hashtag #pubcode. Here are some of their answers:
“absorbing”: “makes a great coaster” @DonLinn Don Linn, publishing consultant
“accessible”: “not too many big words” @MarkKohut Mark Kohut, writer and consultant
“acclaimed”: “poorly selling” @BloomsburyPress Peter Ginna, publisher, Bloomsbury Press
“breakout book”: “Hail Mary pass” @BookFlack Larry Hughes, associate director of publicity, the Free Press at Simon & Schuster
“brilliantly defies categorization”: “even the author has no clue what he’s turned in” @james_meader James Meader, publicity director of Picador USA
“captures the times we live in”: “captures the times we were living in two years ago” @mathitak Mark Athitakis, critic
“classroom-friendly”: “kids won’t read it unless they have to” @LindaWonder, Linda White, book promoter at Wonder Communications
“continues in the proud tradition of J.R.R. Tolkien”: “this book has a dwarf in it” @jasonpinter Jason Pinter, author of the Zeke Bartholomew series for young readers
“definitive”: “could have used an editor” @kalenski, “Book Babe Extraordinaire”
“an eBook original”: “still no proofreading and bad formatting” @mikecane Mike Cane, writer and digital book advocate
“edgy”: “contains no adult voices of reason” @wmpreston William Preston, English teacher
“epic”: “very long” @sheilaoflanagan Sheila O’Flanagan, novelist (Stand by Me)
“erotic”: “porn” @BloomsburyPress Peter Ginna, publisher, Bloomsbury Press
“ethnic literature”: “stuff written by nonwhite people” @elprofe316 Rich Villar, executive director of Acentos
“frothy romp”: “funny book by lady” “Funny = funny book by a man” @jenniferweiner Jennifer Weiner, novelist (Then Came You) and television producer (State of Georgia)
“gripping”: “I turned the pages fast but didn’t read them” @sarahw Sarah Weinman, news editor of Publishers Marketplace
“gritty street tale”: “Black author from the hood. Run.” @DuchessCadbury, graduate student in literature
“I’ve been a fan of Author X for a long time”: “I slept with them regrettably, in MFA school.” @Weegee Kevin Smokler, vice-president of marketing for Byliner.
“lapidary prose”: “I did not know what half of these words meant” @jenniferweiner Jennifer Weiner, novelist (Then Came You) and television producer (State of Georgia)
“literary”: “plotless” @MarkKohut Mark Kohut, writer and consultant
“long-awaited”: “late” @janiceharayda Jan Harayda, novelist and editor of One-Minute Book Reviews
“luminous” or “lyrical”: “not much happens” @BloomsburyPress Peter Ginna, publisher, Bloomsbury Press
“magisterial”: “long” @BloomsburyPress Peter Ginna, publisher, Bloomsbury Press
“meticulously researched”: “overloaded with footnotes” @BookFlack Larry Hughes, associate director of publicity, the Free Press at Simon & Schuster
“memoir”: “nonfiction until proven otherwise” @BookFlack Larry Hughes, associate director of publicity, the Free Press at Simon & Schuster
“the next Elmore Leonard”: “This book has criminals or Detroit or maybe Florida in it” @bryonq Bryon Quertermous, fiction writer
“novella”: “short story with large font” @BookFlack Larry Hughes, associate director of publicity, the Free Press at Simon & Schuster
“a real tear-jerker”: “writing so bad it makes you cry” @DrewSGoodman Drew Goodman, writer and social media analyst
“ripped from the headlines”: “no original plot line” @jdeval Jacqueline Deval, author (Publicize Your Book!) and book publicist
“rollicking”: “chaotic” @BloomsburyPress Peter Ginna, publisher, Bloomsbury Press
“sensual”: “soft porn” @BloomsburyPress Peter Ginna, publisher, Bloomsbury Press
“stunning”: “major character dies” @mathitak Mark Athitakis, critic
“provocative”: “about race/religion” @mathitak Mark Athitakis, critic
“promising debut”: “many flaws, but not unforgivably bad” @mathitak Mark Athitakis, critic
“unflinching”: “has a lot of bad words” @isabelkaplan Isabel Kaplan, novelist (Hancock Park)
“visionary”: “can’t be proved wrong yet” @IsabelAnders Isabel Anders, author (Blessings and Prayers for Married Couples)
“voice of a generation”: “instantly dated” @MarkKohut Mark Kohut, writer and consultant
“weighty”: “I had to lug this dense historical monster all over town and I still can’t bring myself to finish it” @emilynussbaum Emily Nussbaum, writer for New York magazine and other publicatons
“wildly imaginative”: “wrote book high on mescaline” @simonm223 Simon McNeil, novelist
“a writer to watch”: “as opposed to one you are actually going to want to read” @janiceharayda Jan Harayda, novelist and editor of One-Minute Book Reviews
You’ll find more publishing buzzwords decoded in the sequel to this post at http://bit.ly/pubcode2.
You can follow Jan on Twitter at www.twitter.com/janiceharayda.
