L 

Label

 A square or rectangular piece of paper or leather attached to the spine of a book, containing printed information about the book, such as author, title, and volume number. Also known as backstrip label.

Laid In

 Pages or other paper present in the book that are not glued or sewn in.

Laminated

 A thin layer of plastic that is adhered to another material, such as cloth or paper.

Large Paper Edition

 An edition of a book with pages in a larger format than those of the regular edition. Typically these are limited or de-luxe editions of a work.

Large Print Edition

 Designed for people with poor eyesight, the words are printed in a larger size than in the regular edition.

Layout

 The overall design or mock-up of a page, including typeface, headlines, page number, and visuals showing how the page will look when printed; a guide for the printer.

Lccn

 Established in 1901, a numbering system that lists forthcoming publications; this collection of selected titles is used by most public and private libraries, researchers and bibliographers.

Leaf (Ll)

 A single sheet of paper in a book. A page is one side of a leaf.

Leather Bound

 A book that is bound and covered in leather.

Leatherette

 An imitation of grained leather, produced from a strong, machine-glazed base paper. Many small prayer books, for example, are leatherette. See also imitation leather.

Leaves

 The sheets of paper that make up a book. A page is one side of a leaf.

Levant

 Elegant and highly polished morocco goatskin leather with a grain-pattern surface.

Library Binding

 A book with a stronger binding than the customary edition binding, and intended for use in a library.

Library Edition

 Refers to a book supposedly or actually printed on a better quality of paper and with a stronger binding than the standard edition. It can also refer to an edition, series, or set of books, produced in a uniform format, but this use of the term is more or less obsolete.

Library Of Congress

 The national library of the United States located in Washington D.C.

Limitation

 A statement of number of copies printed in an edition. See also limited edition.

Limited Edition

 An edition that is limited to a certain number of copies, is usually printed and bound luxuriously, and in some cases, may be signed by the author. The number of copies is given somewhere in the text of the book.

Limp Cover

 A book that has a flexible cloth, leather, or vellum cover. In the last quarter of the 18th century and the first quarter of the 19th, limp leather covers were commonly used for books to be carried in the pocket. In the 20th century, the primary use was for cheap, educational, sentimental verse, or devotional books. Also known as limp cloth, limp binding, limp leather, or limp vellum.

List Position

 where in the publisher's pecking order a title ranks. A lead title will have a larger print run and bigger publicity budget than books lower on the list.

List Price

 The sales price printed on your book or the retail sales price.

Lithograph

 An illustration printed from stone, zinc, or other material.

Logo

 Identification mark used by an individual, business or organization as a representation symbol.

Loose

 Refers to the condition of a book; the text block is coming loose from the binding at the hinges.

Loose-Leaf

 The binding of individual sheets of paper in an exchangeable form, for pages to be added, removed, or relocated in the book. Loose-leaf bindings are used wherever records of repeatedly changing information must be kept. Instruction manuals, catalogs, and accounting forms are often loose-leaf bound. Also known as ring-bound.