THE PAIGE TURNER GLOSSARY

Trope

A set of rules, conventions and ideals in writing e.g. friends to lovers, alpha male, forbidden love, etc.

Genre

A category of literature sharing specific features that set it apart from other categories e.g. romance, sci-fi, thriller, etc.

Sub-genre

A category of literature that is part of a larger category e.g. contemporary romance, historical romance, and erotica are all sub-genres of the Romance genre.

HEA

Happily Ever After – the most popular kind of ending in romance novels.

Theme

The overarching message or narrative of a story.

Heat Level

Speaks to how explicit (or not) a romance novel is and what readers can expect e.g. sweet, sensual/steamy, erotic. You can learn more about heat levels here (hyperlink).

F/F or wlw

Romance with two women as the main couple

M/M

Romance with two men as the main couple

Taboo

Themes not considered socially acceptable e.g. rape fantasy, incest, etc.

Kink

A specific expression of sexuality and sexual concepts e.g. BDSM

POC/WOC

People of color/Women of color

Kindle Format

Book formatting that is compatible to Kindle e-readers

Amazon’s Adult Filter

Amazon applies this filter to certain types of content, preventing it from showing up in search results

Meta Tags

HTML text describing information about content on a page. It does not appear on the page itself.

Meta Description

HTML text that gives a short summary of a web page. It’s usually the words displayed under a URL when doing a search.

Blurb

A short description of the book.

Back Matter

Content at the end of a book e.g. epilogue, bibliography, index, etc.

Book Bundle

A series of books offered as a complete set e.g. a trilogy of books following one story, a series following different characters who share the same world.

Pen Name

A name a writer uses to publish under instead of using their actual name.

Kindle Unlimited

A reading service that allows readers to read as much as they want for a monthly fee.

Digital Asset

Digital content, like images and videos.

Passive Income

Earnings that come from endeavors where a person isn’t actively involved after the initial stage of setting up e.g. self-publishing books, rental property, etc.

Self-Publishing

A writer publishing their work independently and at their own expense.