whafa n.—Gloss: A contraction of “what the fuck?” «Because Probst is a publisher and has an Amazon Advantage account, he sent Amazon a letter saying “whafa.”» —“Amazon is a Gay-Hating Company for...
dayscrapping n.— «I even learned a new word the other day from our friends at Outsell: “dayscrapping,” which refers to the practice some daily newspapers have adopted of publishing or delivering papers only on certain days...
earn out v. phr.— «Consider the advance system, whereby a publisher pays an author a nonreturnable up-front fee for a book. If the book doesn’t “earn out,” in the industry parlance, the publisher simply eats the cost...
interstitial reading n.— «For a day filled with IMs and music and slathered over with email, one opportunity for publishers is to promote interstitial reading, reading that is done in the brief moments between other engagements, whether...
An Indiana woman shudders every time anyone uses the expression comprised of. She wants to know if she’s right that it’s bad grammar, and more important, is she right to be a stickler about it? This is part of a complete episode...
The British publishers of the Collins dictionary have announced 24 words on their endangered species list. They’re words like “vilipend,” which means “to treat with contempt,” and “nitid,” that’s n-i-t...