A tankōbon (単行本, "independent/standalone book") is the Japanese term for a book that is complete in itself and is not part of a series or corpus. In modern Japan though it is most often used in reference to individual volumes of a single manga, as opposed to magazines (雑誌 zasshi), which feature multiple series. Tankōbon are not just confined to manga, and can be used for almost anything in a hardcover or softcover format from novels to books about beauty tips.