Labels are useful materials often made of cloth, paper, metal, or plastic and are attached to various objects such as containers. Labels can contain a range of information, from the name and address of the manufacturer to ID numbers and prices.
In publishing, in particular, labels tend to end up on book spines – those long sides that face outwards when you store books on shelves. Here, you’ll find publisher names and logos, author names plus titles, logos representing collections a title is part of, and maybe another logo or two.
But labels don’t just go on book spines; there might be labels on the front cover of books, even back covers. And sometimes dust jackets need their labels put inside them, too, for one reason or another, if they will work properly.
Inside front covers, there’s usually something else again called a price sticker, which tells you how much that book costs – although this could also be called something different depending on where you’re from.
Another meaning of labels is brand (or imprint) used by publishers to market different types, styles, qualities, prices, and points differently.
In addition, genres such as fantasy fiction are also identified by labels. This is useful for readers looking to try a new book and want to know what sort of thing they’re getting into. Being able to categorize books helps to target certain audiences, too.