Nobody asks what a gutter is. They nod through the call and look it up later — or more often, they do not.
Publishing runs on about thirty words the trade uses without explaining. None are difficult. All are used as though you already know. Here they are, grouped by where you first run into them.
Five that cost people money
MRP is not your royalty. The cover price is not what reaches you. The gap between the two is the entire business, and the number to ask about first. the pricing and royalty guide →
An ISBN is not a copyright. One identifies the book so shops can order it. The other protects what is inside. Neither does the other’s job, and you need both. who owns it →
A barcode is not an ISBN. The barcode is a picture of the ISBN. You cannot have one without first having the other. the ISBN guide →
Print-on-demand is not a print run. One prints a copy when somebody buys it. The other prints five hundred and hopes. The most expensive first-book mistake in India. what it costs →
Your publisher may not be your publisher of record. Take a free platform ISBN and the platform is named as publisher, not you — and it cannot be undone without starting the title again. KDP versus a publisher →
Stage one
✍ Before It Is a Book
Developmental edit
The big-picture pass — structure, argument, pacing, what to cut and what is missing. It comes before any sentence-level work, because there is no point polishing a chapter that should not exist.
Copyedit
Sentence by sentence. Grammar, consistency, repeated words, facts that contradict each other on page 12 and page 180. The most commonly skipped stage, and the one readers notice the absence of.
Proofread
The final read of the typeset pages — a broken heading, a missing full stop, a page number out of place. Not a rewrite. Anyone offering to proofread a rough draft is describing the wrong job.
Beta reader
A real reader who reads the book before publication and tells you where they got bored. Unpaid, untrained, and more useful than that sounds.
ARC
Advance reader copy — a finished-looking copy sent out before publication to collect early reviews. In India this usually means a PDF or an eBook file rather than a printed proof.
Blurb
The description on the back cover and the retail listing. Not a summary and not a synopsis — a synopsis tells the whole story including the ending, and is for editors. A blurb is for the person deciding whether to buy.
The blurb sells harder than anything else you write about the book. Our guide to the description and keywords covers it in full.
Stage two
📗 The Book as an Object
Trim size
The finished dimensions of the page. In India 5x8 suits short reflective books and 6x9 is standard for non-fiction. The choice changes your page count, your printing cost and how the book feels in a hand.
Front matter
Everything before chapter one — title page, copyright page, dedication, contents, foreword. Numbered in roman numerals so that chapter one can start on page 1.
Gutter
The inner margin, where the pages meet the spine. Set it too narrow and the reader has to break the book’s back to read the first word of every line. Thicker books need a wider gutter.
Bleed
Extra image area running past the trim line, so there is no white sliver when the page is cut. Any image meant to reach the edge needs it.
GSM
Grams per square metre — how heavy the paper is. Too low and the print shows through from the other side, which is the cheapest-looking flaw a book can have.
Typeset
Turning a word-processor file into laid-out pages — typeface, spacing, margins, running heads, chapter openings. A book formatted only in Word looks like one.
Most of what goes wrong here is invisible until the proof arrives. Our formatting mistakes to avoid is worth reading first.
Stage three
🏷 Rights and Registration
ISBN
The thirteen-digit number identifying your book as a specific edition. Each format needs its own — paperback and eBook cannot share. Free in India from the government agency, under your own name.
Barcode
The machine-readable version of the ISBN, printed on the back cover, often with the price encoded beside it. Generated from the ISBN, never the other way round.
Imprint
The publishing name that appears on the book. A publisher can run several. It is what a reader sees on the spine and what a bookshop files you under.
Publisher of record
Whoever the ISBN says published the book. Invisible until it matters — when you want to move the title, or somebody asks who controls it.
Copyright
Automatic protection of what you wrote, from the moment you write it. Registration is optional in India and strengthens your position in a dispute. Separate from the ISBN and separate from who prints the book.
Moral rights
Your right to be named as author and to object to treatment that damages your reputation. Under Indian law these stay with you even if you sign away the commercial rights. They cannot be sold.
Our complete ISBN guide walks through the application, and who really owns your book covers the rest.
Stage four
📦 Printing and Stock
Print-on-demand
A copy is printed when somebody orders it. No upfront cost, no storage, no unsold stock, and the book stays available for years. Higher per copy, and correct for almost every first book.
Offset
Bulk printing from plates. Much cheaper per copy at volume, and only worth it in the hundreds, because the setup cost is the same for fifty copies or five hundred.
Print run
A batch printed in one go. The number people quote proudly and regret quietly. Print one only against orders you can already name.
Unit cost
What one copy costs to produce — mostly page count, paper and whether the interior is colour. Subtracted before your royalty, which is why a 400-page book at a low price pays almost nothing.
Consignment
A shop takes copies without paying, pays only for what sells, returns the rest. Normal for an independent bookshop, and the reason shelf space is so hard to get.
Returns
Unsold copies coming back. On consignment they come back to you, often shopworn. It is the risk the shop is refusing to carry, and it is why a big order is not automatically good news.
The economics sit in what self-publishing actually costs; where the copies go is in the distribution guide.
Stage five
💳 Getting It Sold
MRP
Maximum retail price — the printed cover price. It sets the ceiling for what anyone can charge, and every other number in the chain is calculated backwards from it.
Royalty
Your share of a sale, after the retailer’s cut and the cost of the copy. It varies by channel, which is why the same book pays differently on Amazon, in a bookshop, and through a publisher’s own store.
Metadata
Everything about the book that is not the book — title, subtitle, description, keywords, categories, price, publication date. How search finds you, and the most neglected asset on any listing.
Categories
The shelves your book sits on in an online store. Amazon allows three per format. A narrow one you can rank near the top of is worth more than a huge one you disappear inside.
Distribution
Getting the book listed and orderable wherever readers buy — Amazon and Flipkart, Google Play for eBooks, Ingram for international availability, which means printable abroad rather than shipped from here.
Sales rank
A live position within a category, constantly recalculated. It reflects recent sales relative to other books, not total copies. A good rank for an hour is not a bestseller, whatever the screenshot says.
Two repay real attention: your description and keywords and the pricing arithmetic. After that, honest reviews.
Thirty words, none of them complicated. If you are at the very beginning, writing the first book comes before any of it — the vocabulary can wait until there is something to apply it to.
Ask us anything on this list.
Nobody at OrangeBooks will make you feel slow for asking what a gutter is. Over 3,100 authors published, every right retained.
