Fiction Writing

The fiction writing glossary is an attempt to assemble terms that new writers might come across while on their quest to getting published. It includes terms an author might come across in trade magazines about writing or in the Writer's Market. If you can't find a term here, try the publishing glossary.

Click an index letter below to jump to terms:

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z #

advance: Payment from a market to an author before manuscript publication. Advances are usually only given for books. You will rarely get an advance unless you are a published author.
agent: A person who acts on behalf of an author to find an editor to purchase their work. Agents also help to negotiate contract deals with markets.
all rights: A contract in which the editor can use a writer's manuscript anywhere, any time and in any form with no additional payment to the author. If you can, you will want to avoid this sort of contract unless you are not very attached to your work.
anthology: A collection of selected writings.
anthology rights: A market retains the rights to republish your story in an anthology (usually without an additional fee).

contributor's copy: A copy of the magazine, anthology or book sent to a writer in which his or her work appears. Many small markets pay in contributor's copies only. This isn't a bad deal. When you're starting out, what matters is getting published, not how much money you make from it. Besides, you'll want to give them out to your friends, or hold on to them for sentimental reasons!
copyright: The legal right to exclusive publication, distribution and sale of a work. Copyright laws protect a specific product, not the ideas or concepts contained within it. There are a lot of fears and rumors about editors stealing stories from writers. This is just bunk. You really don't need to copyright your manuscripts before you submit them, and copyrighting a manuscript will make it less salable. Editors don't want to have to deal with it.
To learn more about copyright laws, visit the United States Copyright Office.
You might also find this article about copyrighting from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America useful.
cover letter: A brief letter sent along with a manuscript to an editor. The form and content of the cover letter varies by market, but a cover letter usually include any past or pending publications. These letters act as professional introductions, and as such should be professionally written. Never use colored paper, special fonts or some other trick meant to "catch the editor's attention." If your manuscript is good, that's all the attention getting you'll need. Cover letters should be short and concise, without any marketing clichés.

electronic submissions: Manuscripts submitted on disc or through email. Very few traditional print markets accept electronic submissions.

fair use: Provision in the copyright law that says short passages from a copyrighted material can be used without infringing on the owner's rights. Consult copyright laws and any requests or conditions of use outlined by an author or publisher before using copyrighted material.
first rights: Permission to publish a work that has not been published before.
foreign rights: Permission to publish a manuscript in other countries. It seems like you might want to retain these rights if you can. That way you can reprint your story in other countries (and maybe make a lot of extra money).

guidelines: A list of instructions provided by a market that details what sorts of manuscripts they are looking for, how to submit a manuscript, who to submit the manuscript to, the pay rate and kill fee (if any), and reporting time. You can get a copy of a market's guidelines in several ways. First, check out the Writer's Market. This will give you a lot of information about the market you are looking into. Second, request a copy of the markets guidelines from the market itself. You'll need their mailing address, and include an SASE so the market has something to mail the guidelines in. (You can get a mailing address from a copy of the market's publication. The address is usually on one of the first couple of pages.) Third, you can go to the market's web site. Many markets that maintain a web site will also post a copy of their guidelines. Fourth, you can go to web sites that maintain writer's guidelines, such as the Writer's Digest site.

International Reply Coupon: A form purchased at the post office and included with a submitted manuscript to cover return postage for that manuscript. Use IRCs when submitting to international editors.

kill fee: A small fee a market gives an author for a manuscript the market accepted but then decided not to publish. Not all markets offer kill fees. Check a market's guidelines or a Writer's Market to see if the market you are submitting to offers a kill fee.

literary agent: see agent

ms: see manuscript
manuscript: An unpublished copy of a work. You will sometimes find manuscript abbreviated ms (or mss for manuscripts) when you are reading guidelines from an editor or when you are reading the Writer's Market.
market: A magazine, web site, publisher, etc. to which authors submit their manuscript. Before submitting to a market, you should become familiar with it by purchasing a sample copy. You should also attain a copy of its guidelines.
multiple submissions: Submitting more than one manuscript to a single market. Many markets do not allow multiple submissions. Check the market's guidelines for information about the multiple-submission policies.

one-time rights: Permission to publish a manuscript only once.
on-line markets: Markets that publish manuscripts on the Internet.

paying market: A market that purchases manuscripts for a monetary amount. Paying markets usually pay by the word for fiction and nonfiction, and by the line for poetry. Some magazines pay by the magazine page.
pays on acceptance: Describes when a market pays a writer for their manuscript. In this case, the market pays as soon as they accept a manuscript.
pays on publication: Describes when a market pays a writer for their manuscript. In this case, the market pays as soon as they publish a manuscript. If you can, you will want to avoid this sort of paying scheme. It's possible that a market could accept your manuscript and then never publish it (and hence never pay you). You still retain your rights to the story, but you have lost valuable time you could have been using to submit the manuscript to other markets. If you do submit your manuscript to a market that pays on publication, find out if they offer a kill fee.

query (query letter): A letter sent to an editor to elicit interest in a manuscript. A query is a professional introduction to your manuscript and should be written as such. You should never use tricks like printing it on colored paper or using a color ink.

reporting time: The amount of time it takes a market to report back to an author about the author's manuscript. Reporting times vary by market. A good reporting time is between one and two months.
reprint: A manuscript that has been previously published. Few markets accept manuscripts for reprint, and if they do you usually get a smaller fee. Most markets consider a manuscript already published on the web in any format a reprint (I believe this includes a short story you may have written and posted on your own web site).
response time: see reporting time
royalties: Any additional fees a market pays an author based on manuscript or other sales.

sample copy: A copy of a market you are submitting to. Before you submit a manuscript to a market, you should be familiar with the types of manuscripts they accept, and the types of manuscripts they have recently published. Ignoring these facts will make it more difficult for you to publish your manuscript. Markets detail how to attain a sample copy of their publication in the guidelines. You can also just go to your local bookstore and see if they carry the market you want to submit to.
SASE: (Self Addressed Stamped Envelope) You should always include an SASE when you submit a manuscript. This gives the editor something to mail your acceptance/rejection letter in. If you're lucky, and the editor has time, you may get some friendly advice for your next submission. (Don't count on this.)
If you don't want your manuscript returned to you, just send a #10 envelope with one stamp. If you want the editor to return your manuscript, you should include an envelope big enough for the manuscript with enough postage. Do not meter the return envelope because the post office only accepts metered postage on the day a package was weighed. Use stamps instead.
serial rights: Permission to publish a story or book as part of an anthology or series.
simultaneous submissions: Submitting a manuscript to more than one market at a time. Do not do this unless every market you are submitting to accepts simultaneous submissions, which very few markets do.
submission guidelines: see guidelines

word count: The number of words in a manuscript. Most paying markets pay by the word. Some magazines pay by the page (the magazine's page that is). I wrote up a brief article on word count for Hokum Home.
writer's guidelines: see guidelines
Writer's Market: Industry standard guide to markets. You can purchase it at any book store, or order it online from places like Amazon. The Writer's Market comes in different varieties, from the general Writer's Market which lists markets from all different fields, to the Fiction Writer's market which lists on markets that publish fiction. Each market usually has listings for contests as well.

# 10 envelope: Standard 4"X9.5" envelope used for business mail. You'll want to use this sort of envelope for your SASE or query letter.

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