- Advance Review Copy (ARC)
- A pre-release copy of a book sent to early readers in exchange for honest reviews at launch.
- Aspect ratio (cover)
- The width-to-height proportion of a cover image. Amazon KDP recommends 1.6:1 — e.g. 1600 × 2560 pixels.
- Back matter
- Everything after the final chapter: about the author, other books, and your call-to-action pages.
- Backlist
- An author's previously published titles. Backlist depth is the main driver of steady self-publishing income.
- Blurb
- The short sales description on a store page. On Amazon it doubles as searchable text, so keywords matter.
- Category (KDP)
- The browse categories a book is listed under on Amazon. Ranking #1 in a niche category earns the 'Best Seller' badge.
- Commercial license
- The right to sell content you created with a tool. EbookCreator grants full commercial rights on everything you generate.
- Credits
- EbookCreator's usage unit: an outline costs 5 credits, each generated chapter or AI assist costs 1.
- DOCX
- Microsoft Word's file format — the manuscript format most editors and formatters expect.
- DRM
- Digital Rights Management — copy protection applied by some stores. Optional on KDP; many indies skip it.
- EPUB
- The open eBook standard used by Apple Books, Kobo, and most non-Amazon stores. Text reflows to fit any screen.
- Front matter
- Pages before chapter one: title page, copyright, dedication, table of contents.
- Ghostwriting
- Writing published under someone else's name. AI drafting is often described as ghostwriting you edit.
- Gumroad
- A creator commerce platform for selling digital products — including eBooks — directly to your audience.
- ISBN
- The unique identifier for a published book edition. Optional for Kindle eBooks (Amazon assigns an ASIN instead).
- KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing)
- Amazon's self-publishing platform for eBooks and print-on-demand paperbacks — the largest self-publishing marketplace.
- KDP Select
- An optional KDP program: 90-day Amazon exclusivity in exchange for Kindle Unlimited enrollment and promo tools.
- Kindle Unlimited (KU)
- Amazon's reading subscription. Authors in KDP Select are paid per page read (KENP) instead of per sale.
- KENP
- Kindle Edition Normalized Pages — the page-read unit Amazon uses to pay Kindle Unlimited royalties.
- Keyword (KDP)
- The seven search phrases you attach to a KDP listing. They decide which searches your book appears in.
- Lead magnet
- A free digital product — often an eBook — offered in exchange for an email address.
- Low-content book
- Books with minimal text: journals, planners, notebooks, coloring books. A major print-on-demand niche.
- Manuscript
- The complete text of a book before design and publication.
- Niche
- A narrow, specific audience or topic. In self-publishing, narrower niches almost always sell better than broad ones.
- Outline
- The chapter-by-chapter plan of a book. In EbookCreator, the editable step between your idea and generation.
- Print-on-demand (POD)
- Printing each copy only when ordered — no inventory. How KDP paperbacks and hardcovers work.
- Print-ready PDF
- A PDF with embedded fonts and correct margins/bleed that a printer can use as-is.
- Public domain
- Creative work whose copyright has expired — free for anyone to use and republish.
- Royalty
- The share of each sale paid to the author. KDP pays 70% on eBooks priced $2.99–$9.99, otherwise 35%.
- Self-publishing
- Publishing directly to readers via platforms like KDP, Apple Books, and Kobo, without a traditional publisher.
- Series
- Multiple linked titles. Series dominate self-publishing because each new book markets all the others.
- Table of contents (TOC)
- The navigable chapter list. Stores require a working TOC in eBooks.
- Trim size
- The physical page dimensions of a print book, e.g. 6 × 9 inches — the most common non-fiction trim.
- Tripwire
- A low-priced product (often an eBook) that converts new audience members into first-time buyers.
- Typesetting
- Arranging text on the page — fonts, spacing, margins — for comfortable reading.
- Wide (publishing wide)
- Distributing on every store (Apple, Kobo, Google Play…) instead of being exclusive to Amazon.