Glossary of sapphic fiction terms

Like any community, sapphic fiction has developed its own terms, abbreviations, and acronyms.

I put together a glossary of sapphic fiction terms listing everything I could think of that might be of help to newer authors. Some of them pertain to identities within the LGBTQ+ community; some are writing- or publishing-related; and some are marketing terms.

• Ace: Short for asexual (or on the asexual spectrum). A person who doesn’t experience sexual attraction.
• Ace-spec: A person who’s on the asexual spectrum. The person might be asexual, demisexual, or gray-asexual.
• AFAB: Assigned female at birth.
• Alpha reader: The first people to read a manuscript while it’s not yet completed. Some alpha readers read along as the author finishes each chapter.
• Altfic: A story that features a romantic and/or sexual relationship between women. Mostly used in Xena fanfiction.
• AMAB: Assigned male at birth.
• Amazon Author Central: The platform where indie and traditionally published authors can claim their Amazon author profile and edit it.
• Angst: In an angsty book, the main characters are put through the wringer emotionally. They might be dealing with painful issues, and if it’s a romance, it might be a tumultuous relationship with a lot of back-and-forth and heartache, but still have a happy end.
• AO3: Archive of Our Own. The largest fanfiction archive on the Internet.
• AOC: Author of color.
• ARC: Advanced review copy (also: advanced reader copy). A copy of a book that is given to reviewers before publication so they can post the review as soon as the book is out.
• Aro: Short for aromantic, a person who doesn’t experience romantic attraction.
• Aroace (or aro/ace): A person who’s asexual and aromantic (or on the aromantic and asexual spectrums).
• Aro-spec: Aromantic spectrum. The person might be aromantic, demiromantic, or grayromantic.
• ASIN: Amazon Standard Identification Number. A 10-character identifier Amazon uses to identify books. You can find the ASIN on the Amazon book page of your book.
• AU: Alternative universe. Mostly a fanfiction term for stories that are set in a different setting than the original work.
• Author platform: The visibility and reach you built via your website, newsletter, social media channels, etc.
• Auto-buy: An author whose books readers buy without reading the reviews or an excerpt because they know it’ll be good.
• Backlist: All of an author’s books that were published before the current year.
• Back matter: All the parts of a book after the end of the story, e.g., author’s bio, other books by the author, an invitation to join the author’s newsletter, etc.
• Backstory: A character’s life before the opening scene of the book, including their childhood and relationship history.
• BBW: Big beautiful woman. The story features a plus-sized female protagonist in a positive way.
• BDSM: Bondage, discipline, sadism, masochism.
• Beta; beta reader: A test reader who reads an early draft of a manuscript and provides feedback to help the author revise it before publication. The difference between alpha and beta readers is that alpha readers read the first draft, while beta readers read a later draft that has been revised with the help of feedback from alpha readers.
• Big mis: The big misunderstanding. A cliché in romance novels that is based on a big misunderstanding that could have been resolved if only the characters didn’t refuse to talk to each other (“Oh, the woman I saw you kiss is your sister!”).
• Binge-read: Reading all the books in a series or books by one author in a row.
• BIPOC: Black, indigenous, and people of color.
• Bisexual: A person who is attracted to two or more genders.
• Blurb: The description of a book that you’ll find on the back of the paperback or on a retailer’s book page. It’s meant to hook readers, not to provide a summary or synopsis.
• B&N: Barnes and Noble.
• Book birthday: The release/publication day of a book.
• BookBub: A daily newsletter for free and deeply discounted books.
• Book hangover: What you feel after finishing a book that was so great that you find it hard to move on to the next.
• Bookstagram: The community of book bloggers, reviewers, and readers on Instagram who post book-related pictures.
• BookTube: The YouTube community of vloggers, reviewers, and readers who create book-related videos such as book reviews, recommendations, book hauls, etc.
• Book Twitter: The community of vloggers, reviewers, readers, authors, and other bookish people on Twitter.
• Buddy read: Two (or more) people read the same book at the same time so they can talk about it.
• Butch: A (most often lesbian) woman who is masculine of center in attitude and/or presentation.
• Character arc: The emotional journey or transformation process a character goes through over the course of the story.
• Cinnamon roll: Kind, warm-hearted, sweet character.
• Cis: A person whose gender identity matches the sex they were assigned at birth.
• Cishet: A person who’s both cisgender and heterosexual.
• Clean link: Always use a clean link for your books. If you search for your book on Amazon, you get a link that looks like this: https://www.amazon.com/Lucky-Yellow-Shoes-Unexpected-Love-ebook/dp/B0C24DC1F5/ref=sr_1_1?crid=YQD872027PHI&keywords=lucky+yellow+shoes+jae&qid=1683671998&. To clean it up, remove the search string (everything after the ASIN). You can even shorten it further, e.g., https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C24DC1F5/.
• Clexa: Fanfiction ship between Clarke Griffin and Lexa from the show The 100. One of the top 3 most popular sapphic ships on AO3.
• Cliffhanger: The book ends at a dramatic moment, and readers are left hanging until they read the next book in the series.
• Closed-door romance: Romance that doesn’t have an on-page sex scene.
• COC: Character of color.
• Con: Conference. Gathering of readers and (often) authors.
• Contemporary romance: Romance novel that is set in the present or not further back than 25 years. There are no fantastical elements.
• Conversion rate: How many percent of the people who click on the link to your book end up buying it.
• CP: Critique partner. A fellow writer who exchange critiques of each other’s manuscript to help each other revise their work before publication.
• CPC: Cost per click. How much you pay for each click on your ad.
• CPM: Cost per mille. How much you pay per thousand impressions, i.e. 1,000 views of your ad.
• CR: Currently reading. Can also stand for contemporary romance.
• CTA: Call to action. A marketing term. What do you want people to do, e.g., buy the book, subscribe to your newsletter, enter a giveaway, etc?
• CTR: Click-through rate: How many of the people who see your ad or marketing copy click the link you included.
• CW: Content warning. Warns readers that the story contains something that might elicit a strong—and potentially harmful—emotional response, e.g., sexual assault, cruelty to animals, suicide. Usually, “content warning” means that the story discusses sensitive content, while “trigger warning” means that there are graphic descriptions of it.
• Dark moment: The moment in a book when a happy ending seems impossible. The conflicts the main characters have been struggling with come to a head. In a romance, it’s often a breakup.
• Demisexual: A person who doesn’t experience sexual attraction until a strong emotional connection has been formed.
• DNF: Did not finish.
• D/s: Stands for Dominant/submissive or dominance/submission.
• Enemies to lovers: A romance trope that describes a novel in which two enemies or rivals fall in love with each other.
• Epilogue: A section at the end of a novel. It’s set off from the rest of the book, usually by taking place sometime after the previous chapter, so it gives us a glimpse into the characters’ future.
• Fade-to-black: A story in which the characters have sex, but the writer chooses not to show it on the page.
• Fandom: A community of fans of a certain book, TV show, video game, or movie.
• Fauxmance: A fake relationship romance. The two main characters pretend to be a couple…and then actually fall in love.
• FB: Facebook.
• Femme: A (most often lesbian) woman who is feminine of center in attitude and/or presentation.
• Femslash (or femmeslash): The female version of slash. Stories about a romantic and/or sexual relationship between two (or more) women. Mostly used for fanfiction.
• F/F: Female/female. A story that contains a romantic and/or sexual relationship between women.
• FF = fanfic = fanfiction: Stories written by fans of an existing TV show, movie, video game, or book. Fanfic authors base their stories on another author’s characters, so there are legal issues surrounding fanfiction. Some authors allow and even encourage fanfiction based on their work (provided they aren’t published for profit), while others don’t tolerate it.
• First person: The story is told using “I” pronouns.
• FOC: Feminine of center: A person who leans toward the feminine side of the gender spectrum.
• Forced proximity: A romance trope with a plot that forced the main characters to spend time together, e.g., the characters are snowed in or have to work on a project together.
• Front matter: All the parts of a book that precede chapter 1, e.g., copyright page, title page, dedication, acknowledgment, etc.
• FWB: Friends with benefits.
• F2L: Friends to lovers: A romance trope in which the characters start out as friends before falling in love and becoming a couple. In my opinion, it’s only a real friends-to-lovers romance if the characters are already friends when the novel starts. If they meet, become friends, and then fall in love, it might be better classified as a slow-burn romance.
• GCLS: Golden Crown Literary Society. A nonprofit literary organization that aims to increase the visibility and quality of sapphic and WLW fiction.
• Genderfluid: A person whose gender identity shifts over time.
• GNC: Gender-nonconforming: A person who doesn’t conform with society’s expectation of their gender.
• Gq: An umbrella term for people whose gender identity is outside of male/female.
• GR: Goodreads. A large platform for book lovers, now owned by Amazon. Readers can review books, interact with each other in groups, and keep track of what they are reading.
• H/C: hurt/comfort: One character is sick, hurt, or going through emotional pain, and the other character is there to comfort them.
• HEA: Happily ever after. An ending in which the main characters are a couple and happy together, without any major trouble on the horizon.
• Head hopping: The point of view bounces from one character to another within a scene. It’s considered a craft problem that can confuse readers.
• HFN: Happy For Now. The romance ends with the main characters as a couple, but not all issues are resolved.
• Hybrid author: Author who self-publishes some books while publishing others with a publishing house.
• Ice queen: A romance trope that is popular in sapphic romance. It features a main character who is prickly, cold, and standoffish, at least on the outside. She might thaw a bit as the story progresses and the characters fall in love.
• IHS: Short for I Heart SapphFic. A huge website for sapphic fiction, run by TB Markinson and Miranda MacLeod. It offers a BookFinder database and an almost-daily newsletter full of new releases, books on sale, and other sapphic fiction news.
• Indie: Independent or self-published author. Sometimes also refers to indie publishers—small, independent publishing houses.
• Insta-love: Romance in which the two main characters fall in love at first sight or very fast.
• IR: Interracial romance.
• J7: Captain Janeway/Seven of Nine. A popular pairing in Star Trek: Voyager fanfiction.
• KDP: Kindle Direct Publishing. Amazon’s publishing platform.
• KU: Kindle Unlimited. Amazon’s ebook subscription service.
• Lesfic: Short for lesbian fiction. Despite the name, lesfic is often used as an umbrella term that means the protagonist can be any women-loving woman, including, of course, a lesbian. Not all lesfic are romances (though many are), but if there is a relationship, it’s between women. Find out more about the differences and overlap between lesfic, sapphic fiction, WLW books, and other terms.
• LI: Love interest.
• Mary Sue: A female character who is too perfect. She has no flaws, and everyone loves her. Often results when the writer writes herself into the story.
• May/December: A romance with a large age gap between the characters, with one character being in the “spring” of her life and the other in the “winter” of hers.
• MC: Main character.
• Meet-cute: The two main characters of a romance novel meet in a way that is humorous or “cute.”
• M/F: male/female. A story that contains a romantic and/or sexual relationship between a man and a woman.
• Mirandy: Fanfiction ship between Miranda Priestly and Andrea Sachs from the movie The Devil Wears Prada.
• M/M: Male/male. A story that contains a romantic and/or sexual relationship between men.
• MOC: Masculine of center: A person who leans toward the masculine side of the gender spectrum.
• MS: Manuscript.
• MyQueerSapphFic: A newsletter for sapphic books that are on sale.
• NA: New adult. A category of books in which the protagonist is between 18 and 24. It often revolves around going to college, starting their first job, or the first relationship.
• NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month. An annual event in November, in which participating authors try to write a 50,000-word novel in one month.
• NB: Nonbinary. Sometimes also shortened to enby or NBi. A person whose gender identity is between male/female or outside of the gender binary. Nonbinary is an umbrella term with many different identities.
• NBLW: Nonbinary loving women. A nonbinary person who is attracted to women.
• ND: Neurodivergent: A person whose brain functions differently than a neurotypical person’s. It’s a normal variation, not something that needs to be “fixed.”
• Neurodiversity: The diversity of human brains and how they work. Examples for neurodiverse identities are autistic people, people with ADHD, dyslexia, aphantasia, etc.
• Novel: A story with a word count of more than 40,000 words. The average word count for a romance novel is about 80,000 words.
• Novella: A story with a word count of 17,500-40,000 words—so longer than a short story, but not quite novel length.
• Novelette: A story with a word count of 7,500-17,500 words.
• NSFW: Not safe for work. Story contains elements—often explicit sex—that makes it not safe to read at work.
• Omegaverse: A fictional universe in which society is divided into a hierarchy of alphas, betas, and omegas. Alphas can impregnate their partners and omegas can get pregnant, no matter their sex or gender. Most Omegaverse stories are sexually explicit m/m, but there are also f/f Omegaverse stories.
• OOC: Out of character. A character behaves in a way that’s not consistent with their personality and backstory.
• OTP: One true pairing. The couple you are rooting for.
• Own voices: The author belongs to the marginalized group as the book’s main character, so they are writing from their own experience.
• Pansexual: A person who is attracted to people regardless of gender.
• Pantser: A writer who writes by the seat of their pants, without outlining the story beforehand.
• PB: Paperback.
• Perma-free: An ebook that is permanently free on all retailers, not just for a limited time.
• Plotter: Writer who outlines the story before writing the first draft.
• PNR: Paranormal romance. Similar to urban fantasy (UF), but with a stronger focus on the romance.
• POC: Person of color.
• POD: Print on demand. A copy of a book is only printed once a readers orders it.
• Poly; polyam: Stands for polyamory or polyamorous. Being in or being open to relationships with multiple people at the same time.
• POV: Point of view. The perspective from which a story (or a section of the story) is told. It’s like a lens through which readers view the events.
• PPC: Pay-per click advertising. You are charged whenever someone clicks on the ad.
• Prequel: A story that is set before a previously published story. It usually shows us scenes from a character’s life before the events of the original book.
• Purple prose: A description that uses an over-the-top, flowery language, e.g., using “crimson droplets” instead of “blood.”
• PWP: Plot? What Plot? An erotic story without much of a plot.
• Q&A: Questions and answers. An author event in which either a host or readers ask questions, and the author answers them.
• Queerplatonic: A relationship with deeper commitment than a traditional friendship, but that isn’t romantic or sexual.
• Reader magnet: Also called lead magnet. A free ebook readers get in exchange for signing up to an author’s newsletter.
• Read-through: The percentage of readers of a specific book who go on to read the next book in the series.
• Rec: Recommendation.
• Rep: Representation. The book features a character of a certain identity.
• ROI: Return on investment: Measures the profitability of a marketing campaign. ROI = (income from a campaign – cost of the campaign) / cost of campaign.
• Romance arc: The development of the romantic relationship over the course of the book. Needs to be intertwined with the character arc.
• Romantic suspense: A novel with a romance subplot and a mystery/thriller subplot that are equally important.
• Rom-com: Romantic comedy.
• RTC: Review to come.
• SA: Standalone. A book that isn’t part of a series or that can at least be read and enjoyed on its own, without having to have read the other books in the series.
• Saffic: A portmanteau of “sapphic” and “fiction.”
• Sapphic: An umbrella term for all women and nonbinary or intersex persons who are attracted to women.
• SapphFic: A portmanteau of “sapphic” and “fiction.”
• Second chance romance: The main characters were together in the past but broke up for some reason, and now they are getting a second chance at a relationship with each other.
• SEO: Search engine optimization. Utilizing keywords and other strategies so your website appears as high as possible on search engine.
• Sequel: A continuation of a previously published book, usually with the same main characters.
• SF: Science fiction.
• SF/F or SFF: Science fiction & fantasy.
• Shelfie: A photo of a your bookcase.
• Ship (verb): Rooting for two people to get together.
• Short story: A piece of fiction with up to 7,500 words.
• Slash: Fan fiction portraying a romantic and/or sexual relationship between same-sex characters. Often used only for m/m fan fiction. The name originated from the slash between the names of a couple, e.g., Spock/Kirk.
• Slow burn: A romance in which the relationship between the main characters is built over time.
• Smut: Stories that are sexually explicit without much of a plot. Synonym with PWP.
• Spec fic: Speculative fiction. An umbrella term for literature with fantastical or futuristic elements. It includes genres such as science fiction, fantasy, paranormal, supernatural, superhero stories, dystopian, horror, and alternate history.
• Spin-off: A story that is connected to a previously published book but has different main characters. Usually, the protagonist of the spin-off was a supporting character in the previous book.
• Spoiler: Information that reveals crucial elements of a book, e.g., a plot twist, and might “spoil” the reading experience.
• Street team: Readers who review a book and help the author promote it.
• Supercorp: Fanfiction ship between Kara Danvers and Lena Luthor from the show Supergirl. One of the top 3 most popular sapphic ships on AO3.
• Swag: Fun book-related goodies, e.g., bookmarks, book postcards, tote bags, etc.
• SwanQueen: Fanfiction ship between Regina Mills and Emma Swan from the show Once Upon a Time. One of the top 3 most popular sapphic ships on AO3.
• Target audience: The readers most likely to buy and enjoy your books.
• TBB: To be bought. The list of books a reader intends to buy.
• TBC: To be continued…
• TBR: To be read. The pile of books waiting on your bedside table or reading device that you haven’t gotten around to reading.
• Third person: A story told using “she” (or “he” or singular “they”) pronouns.
• TL;DR: Too long, didn’t read. A section of a lengthy blog post in which the author summarizes it for readers who don’t have the time or patience to read the entire text.
• TLR: The Lesbian Review. The most extensive site for sapphic fiction reviews and recommendations.
• Toaster oven romance: A romance in which one of the main characters discovers she’s not as straight as she previously thought. The toaster oven is a reference to an Ellen episode in which a character is jokingly awarded a toaster oven by Lesbian HQ for “converting” a certain quota of straight women. Note: A toaster oven romance isn’t actually about converting anyone since that’s not how sexual orientation works!
• Trans; transgender: Can be used in two ways: as an umbrella term that includes everyone whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth. Many (but not all) nonbinary people consider themselves trans. Trans can also be used to refer to a more specific identity under that umbrella. For example, trans women are women who were assigned male at birth.
• Transfem, transfemme, transfeminine: An AMAB person who identifies with femininity but doesn’t identify as a (binary) woman.
• Transmasc, transmasculine: An AFAB person who identifies with masculinity but doesn’t identify as a (binary) man.
• Trixic: A nonbinary person who is attracted to women (either exclusively or not). Some trixic people might also identify as a nonbinary lesbian.
• Trope: A scenario or basic plot that is common in romance novels, e.g., fake relationship.
• TSTL: Too stupid to live. A character behaves in an immature way that makes no sense throughout the entire book.
• TW: Trigger warning. Warns people that the story contains something that might elicit a strong—and potentially harmful—emotional response, e.g., sexual assault, cruelty to animals, suicide. Usually, “content warning” means that the story discusses sensitive content, while “trigger warning” means that there are graphic descriptions of it.
• Uber: A term from Xena fanfiction that refers to stories transferring the characters to another setting and/or time period. Tropical Storm by Melissa Good was one of the first commercially published Uber fanfics. However, not all romance novels with a tall, dark, and brooding and a blonde, shorter, and upbeat character are Uber.
• UF: Urban fantasy. Books that are set in our modern world, but with a magical or fantastical element or non-human races such as vampires or shape-shifters.
• Universal link: Trackable link that will take readers to the retailer’s store in their country.
• UST: Unresolved sexual tension. The characters haven’t acted on their sizzling sexual attraction yet.
• Wide: Not being exclusive to Amazon KDP; having your books available on all the big retailers.
• WIP: Work in progress. The story a writer is currently working on.
• WLW: Women-loving woman or women-loving women. Unlike f/f, the term doesn’t necessarily mean the book is a romance novel, just that it features a female main character who’s attracted to women.
• YA: Young adult. A category of books in which the protagonist is a teenager, usually 15-18 years old.
• Yuri: Anime, manga, or other Japanese literature that involves romantic and/or sexual relationships between women.

Suggest a term

Is there a sapphic fiction term I should add? Or did I get something wrong? Please let me know in the comments.