Weather you're a writer looking to venture into the digital ebook world, or an illustrator who has been asked to illustrate an ebook for someone else - the jargon can sometimes be confusing.
In my years of illustrating I have learned a lot about ebooks, how they are made and what terms to use. I now find myself using these words without much thought - but for those who are new to this language I have compiled a list of commonly used words, and decided to share them here with a short and simple explanation for each one - some of these may be pretty obvious, but you might just learn something new!
Author - the person who has written the book
Indie author - an author whose work is published either by themselves (self publishing) or a small, independent publisher rather than one of the 'big' companies
Illustrator - the artist who has provided pictures for the book if needed
Editor - an editor usually reviews the book or script and corrects any errors such as text, spelling, grammar, flow and so on
Ebook - an electronic version of a book that can be read on a computer or handheld device (e-reader)
Enhanced ebook - ebooks that are accompanied by music, audio files, animation and other added effects
Ebook reader - an e-book reader, also called an e-book device or e-reader, is an electronic device that is designed for the purpose of reading digital books - such as a kindle, iPad, Nook, etc
Script - the written text, sometimes refferred to as the 'manuscript'
Self publishing - publishing independently at your own expense
epub - short for 'electronic publication' - it is an open standard format for ebooks. It has reflowable content and the files have the extension .epub
mobi - a 'mobipocket' ebook file that is used by popular ebook readers such as the Amazon Kindle
Reflowable content - content that can 'adapt' to which ever device it is being read on. So, for example, text may flow into allocated space or wrap around an image to look and read better when the device has different screen dimensions
Fixed format - the opposite to reflowable - the content does not change from how it was originally intended. PDF files are fixed format
Calibre - calibre is a free computer software application that organizes, saves and manages e-books, supporting a variety of formats
PDF - a portable document file, it is a very popular way of sending documents and displaying ebooks
Android - google's operating system designed for smartphones and tablet computers
Hyperlink - a link from a file or document to another location or file, typically activated by clicking on a highlighted word, web address or image on the screen - taking you to a website. An example of a hyperlink is shown below;
I'm a hyperlink! Click me!
ibooks author - iBooks Author (iBA) is an e-book authoring application by Apple. Documents created with iBooks Author may be published to the Apple iBooks Bookstore. iBooks Author is available free of charge and a popular choice for many ebook authors.
iBookstore - an ebook application by apple where ebooks can be purchased and sold
iOS - iOS is Apple's mobile operating system. It is currently used on iPhones, iPods and iPads
Kindle - the Amazon Kindle is a series of popular e-book readers designed and marketed by Amazon.com
kindle direct publishing - also known as KDP - Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing allows you to self-publish your books and make them available on Kindle, iPad, iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Mac, and PC
kf8 - Amazons new format used on the Kindle Fire e-reader
Nook - a brand of e-reader developed by large book retailer Barnes & Noble, based on the Android platform
ISBN - the 'International Standard Book Number' is a unique numeric commercial book identifier code made from a number of digits. All books for commercial sale need an ISBN number which can be bought, or in some cases provided by the company publishing / distributing the ebook
RTF - a text file format used primarily by Microsoft products, such as Word and Office
URL - a Uniform Resource Locator used to specify addresses on the web, a URL for this blog would be;
http://izzybeanillustration.blogspot.com
Cloud - a relatively new but popular invention, cloud computing, or 'The Cloud,' means storing and accessing data and programs over the Internet instead of your computer's hard drive
download / upload - downloading is transferring a file or files from one computer or the internet to your computer. Uploading is to send a file from your computer to the internet, or another computer
Adobe DRM - a 'digital rights management' format that allows publishers to restrict sharing and specify permission settings on eBook files they provide for sale
HTML - Hypertext Markup Language is a system for tagging and coding text files to achieve font, color, graphic, and hyperlink effects when published on the internet
I am aware there are plenty more terms associated with ebooks and digital publishing, but hopefully this little blog explained some of the most common for you.
If there's anything you think I've missed that should really be on the list - please let me know and I can add it!
If you're interested or currently making an ebook - check out my handy guide;
'Making an Illustrated ebook.'
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