There’s one thing that is rather overwhelming when you first join the online book community and that’s all the acronyms and terms people use across their platforms and social media. It can be a bit of a minefield trying to work out exactly what people are saying, especially if they don’t expand and elaborate.
I want to do my bit and have a definitive list of all the terms and acronyms that you will find across my blog. Some will be universal to book blogging and others will be personal to me.
Audience Acronyms:
A – Adult Fiction
MG or KS2-3 – Middle Grade or Key Stages 2-3 (fiction aimed at children aged 8 to 13/4)
NA – New Adult Fiction
UKYA or UKMG – a social media movement highlighting and supporting MG or YA books and authors based in the UK as a lot of books published, seen around the internet, and promoted to children in UK schools are still primarily US based.
YA – Young Adult fiction
Terms
Blogosphere – the blogging community.
Bookstagram – refer to the definition above but replace YouTube with Instagram
BookTok – again, refer to ‘BookTube’ but replace YouTube with TikTok
BookTube – people in the online book community who promote books through videos on YouTube
Backlist titles – a book published before the current year or two which hasn’t been read yet.
Book Hangover – Period of time after finishing a book in which you can’t stop thinking about said book, and most commonly the feelings it left you with.
Book Haul – a pile or list of books that you’ve recently acquired
Book Unhaul – a pile or list of books that you’re parting with.
Mood reader – someone who picks up a book based on their mood at the time (ME!)
Physical Copy – a physical paperback or hardback version of a book.
Reading challenge – usually refers to the Goodreads Reading Challenge you can make at the beginning of the year but it can also be any personal challenge you set yourself.
Reading or blogging slump – a period of time when you cannot bring yourself to pick up a book and read, or write blog posts.
TAG – questions to answer usually revolving around a particular theme. The ‘tag’ portion comes from tagging other bloggers at the end of the posts to join in the fun.
Blog Acronyms
ARC – Advanced Reader Copy
BIPOC – Black, Indigenous & People of Colour
Blogmas – Blog posts published throughout December in the run up to Christmas (aka Advent)
Blogtober – Blog posts published every day or fairly regularly throughout October
CAWPILE – a book rating system created by G at Book Roast that a lot of people find more consistent and accurate than the regular 5 star ratings. It stands for Characters, Action, Writing, Plot, Intrigue, Logic/Relationships, Enjoyment.
CR – Currently Reading
CW – Content Warnings
DNF – a book you ‘did not finish’
e-ARC – Electronic-Advanced Reader Copy
F/F romance – female/female pairing
GN – Graphic Novel
GR – Goodreads (the more popular of book review and recommendation websites where you can track your reading and what you want to read)
HB – Hardback
MC – Main Character
M/M romance – Male/Male pairing
NG – NetGalley (a website for bloggers, readers, librarians, booksellers and anyone who wants to try getting access to early digital copies of books to review)
OV – Own Voices
PB – Paperback
POV – Point of View
RTC – Review To Come
SG – StoryGraph (a similar website to Goodreads, which in my opinion, works better and is run independently)
“Soft” DNF – a book I didn’t finish at the time I was reading it but want to pick back up at a later date.
TBR – ‘To Be Read’ pile. A digital or physical pile of books that we always mean to read
TW – Trigger Warnings
WIP – Work/Writing in Progress.
Book/Book Series Titles
Okay, some of these I won’t necessarily use or haven’t used for years but I’ve put them here anyway just for reference.
ACG&S – All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot
ACOTAR – A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J Maas
ADOW – A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness
ADSOM – A Darker Shade of Magic by VE Schwab
BATB – Beauty and the Beast by Gabrielle Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve (also can be seen to refer to the Disney film)
COBAB – Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
CTM – Call the Midwife by Jennifer Worth
DOSAB – Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
GOT – Game of Thrones by G.R.R Martin (also maybe ASOIAF for A Song of Ice and Fire)
HDM – His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
TOG – Throne of Glass by Sarah J Maas
SOC – Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo
TFIOS – The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
TFOTA – The Folk of the Air series by Holly Black (The Cruel Prince, The Wicked King and The Queen of Nothing)
THG – The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
THUG – The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
TMI, TID, TDA & TLH – The Mortal Instruments, The Infernal Devices, The Dark Artifices, and The Last Hours series by Cassandra Clare.
LOTR – Lord of the Rings by J.R.R Tolkien
P&P – Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
R&I – Rizzoli and Isles series by Tess Gerritsen
TSOA – The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Social Media
FB – Facebook
IG – Instagram
TT – TikTok
YT – YouTube
Book Events
NYALF – Northern Young Adult Literature Festival, which is held in Preston at the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN), normally in March.
YALC – Young Adult Literature Convention, held annually in London at the Olympia Convention Centre normally towards the end of July.
If there are any others I’ve missed off, let me know and I’ll add them!
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