Much of this will already exist in your book proposal and can easily be converted to the appropriate language if the book is being translated. Your book back matter might be the most valuable section of the book. In this excerpt from book design made simple, we offer a list of possible book front matter pages and their proper order. Roman numerals are used for the front matter of the book to allow additional pages to be added in the front matter without reflowing the page numbers throughout the book. Back matter can include an about the author page or bibliography.
Front and back matter in books alliance of independent. Please include all author names for contributed books the editor names and their affiliations, the book title and subtitle. Book promotion expert ben cameron always says writing the blurb is the hardest 100 words youll ever write, and many authors are also stumped when it comes to writing the front and back matter another task that usually falls just when youre feeling least like writing another word, after completing your book s final edit. Including all of the necessary parts of a book and putting them in the right order is the first step to making your book credible and professional. The recto and verso sides of leaves within the story proper have odd markings running along the fold. Front matter of a book what is included in the front matter of a book. When you format your book for hard copy printing, you should follow the structure as shown in the diagram below. Headers footers decide if you want any headers or footers on your text pages some books have the book title, chapter title. The parts of a book for self published authors bookstand. These preliminary pages are called prelims, or front matter. Its really not all that complicated, but it is important to get it right if you.
Book front matter what to include in the front of your book. In such case, should the first page be i 1 or iii 3. Some elements are expected and others are optional, but there is a standard order. Foreword, preface and acknowledgments, and introduction. There are no page numbers until page 34, and then page numbers are normal type, at bottom of page. Some publishers use roman numerals for the front matter, and carry on the sequence in arabic numbers i, ii, iii, iv, v, 6, 7, 8 etc. An introduction in the subject of the book, however, should appear as the first chapter of the book. Front matter is that part of a book which is found before the main content. Your advice in general is correct for other types of books.
Were novices, so working with front matter and back matter is a new experience. Your book will be divided into three main formatting sections the main one is the story itself, and then there are the mandatory front matter and optional back matter. There may also be a preface by the author, or a foreword by someone familiar with their work. Its there in poetry collections, memoirs, biographies, historical books. Recto is the right page in an englishlanguage book, verso is the left. Your ebook should include a title page with your book title and author name. Probably the most basic aspect of the front matter is the book title page and the half title. Between the covers of your nonfiction book bookbaby blog. Front matter is the first section of a book and is generally the shortest. We all know what the title page is, but whats a half title. It should include a description of the main features of the book, a category, your photo and a brief bio, the publisher, an isbn number, a library of congress number, a bar code, and the price.
The frontmatter, the body of the book, and the backmatter. The front cover is the front of the book, and is marked. Today, we look at the elements which make up the back matter. It is the same regardless of the genre of the document. They arent always numbered separately some books start with the title page as page 1 and are paginated continuously throughout but when there is a significant amount of front matter, its conventional to number it. The front matter includes any material that precedes the text. Thats right, before digging into the main course, i enjoy the appetizers or whats known by book production aficionados as front matter. As a result, it takes more time and cost the client money for us to get the manuscript in the proper format before we can begin to proofread or lay it out. The front matter contains the nuts and bolts of the books publicationinformation such as title, author, publisher, isbn, and library of congress data. Keep in mind that there is no book that has all of these parts. When a book uses arabic page numbering, the usual habit is to treat the front cover as a page number 1, and start the book itself by page number 3. Its good to know that authors typically use back matter to offer readers extra book information. Book design is the art of incorporating the content, style, format, design, and sequence of the various components and elements of a book into a coherent unit.
In the words of renowned typographer jan tschichold 19021974, book design, though largely forgotten today, relies upon methods and rules upon which it is impossible to improve, and which have been developed over centuries. When you insert pages on your core matter document, you can start at page one or set your first page number to start on whatever number will incorporate the nonnumbered pages in your front matter. Its the 30,000 to 50,000 words you just pumped out. How to format front matter how to make an ebook series. The inside of your book, which we call the book block, is divided into three main sections. Every book, your book included, should have front matter, and making front matter look great is easy if you know how. What is included in front matter really depends on the type of publication, so lets go. Next, i flip to the books dedication and acknowledgements. We tend to spend all of our time writing the main content of the book and fail to factor in the extra time required to write and organize the front and back matter.
To save time and money, ive prepared the following checklist. The number itself, which may appear in various places on the page, can be referred to as a page number or as a folio. Build your book format a paperback manuscript word for. The prelims required for selfpublished books are exactly the same as those required for traditionally published books. For guidance like this i recommend you download my free book construction blueprint which explains all the parts of the book and their order within the book. Optional items in the front matter at the beginning of a book are e. Once the novel proper beginsafter the front matterthe page numbers are slanted and underlined. On a loose sheet, recto is the front and verso the back.
The front matter pages usually arent visibly numbered. Ensure you have front matter and back matter that is organized properly to give your book a professional look understand what metadata can be embedded within an ebook and how it relates to discoverability gain comprehension of how more complicated back matter like an index and notes section can function in an ebook. Use this list instead to make sure you have the right content in the right category, and that elements of your book appear in the sequence in which they are expected. However, sometimes the frontmatter of the book is numbered seperately by roman numbers. You can also add other front matter as well as back matter pages, but these arent required. Incidentally, recto means front side and verso means back side of a piece of paper in a bound book. However, we have a recipe book and educational info in our preface and intro. When it comes time for book design there are 2 parts to consider outside the body of the book. Publishers call the preliminary pages in a book the front matter. Like other numbering schemes such as chapter numbering, page numbers allow the citation of a particular page of the numbered document and. The front matter is a section in the beginning of a book. There arent any definitive rules for how the different sections of front matter in an ebook should be organized, and it is very unlikely that your book will be rejected for publishing based on how you have structured it except for smashwords, the nitpicky ones. Thus, in the table of contents you would not mention the title page or the dedication nor the table of contents itself. Hello, this is ken from bookfuel with a brief explanation of front matter and back matter.
Some of it is optional and its up to the author to decide what should be included. Make it shine by arranging it in the proper order and designing it for great readability. Book front matter includes some or all of these pages. After the last page of the manuscripts text, pagination continues in numerical sequence into the. Youll find that a preface is part of the front matter, whereas the introduction is the beginning of the book proper. Front matter of a book what is included in the front. Following a few notes on book design from peter wilson author of the memoir class the order of the pages of the. Its the page at the very front of the book, not used in all cases, that has only the title of. Front matter includes the dedication, epigram, table of contents, foreword, preface, and acknowledgements. Put the whole manuscript, including all front matter and back matter in chronological order in one ms word document. Rightfacing pages are odd numbered pages in printed books because the first piece of paper is on the right side, facing up from the open, printed book. Front matter is the information that appears in the very beginning of a book. Front matter includes elements like title, and dedication pages.
The issue with these three sections is that only the story part should have the title and page numbers in the header andor footer. As i said previously, there are no hard and fast rules that dictate how a book must be structured, but the structure discussed here is one thats been around for a few hundred years. Page numbering is the process of applying a sequence of numbers or letters, or roman numerals to the pages of a book or other document. Your body content is the book itself its your introduction, conclusion and everything in between. Books can be divided into three areas front matter, body content and back matter. Book promotion expert ben cameron always says writing the blurb is the hardest 100 words youll ever write, and many authors are also stumped when it comes to writing the front and back matter another task that usually falls just when youre feeling least like writing another word, after completing your books final edit. The title page is especially easy because you dont need to give it a different style. Last week here, i presented the parts of a book which appear in the front of the book. Front matter are the sections that come before the first chapter.
The front matter of a book consists of its very first pages. It can be as simple as a single title page, or it can include multiple title pages, foreword, a preface, and much more. How to decide on book design front matter and content in the back of the book. This is one of the aspects of front matter that is in every book, no matter the type or genre. Additionally, most proper nouns do not have the word the in front of them in a sentence, the way common nouns do. Whats it matter the front and back matter of a book. Ive been thinking for a while about selfpublishing. Well never look at a childrens picture book in the same way again. No matter which kind of documentproposal, manual, yearend reportyou use the same front and back matter.
Though many readers skip right over it, the front matter contains some pretty important information about the books author and. As i mentioned earlier, the table of contents includes everything that follows it and nothing that precedes it. Proper nouns are always capitalized, no matter where they fall in a sentence. When you open a book, youll find that there are a whole series of pages before the book proper begins. Book back matter what to include in the back of your book. Proper spacing and arrangement are clearly indicated. It matters a lot, but sometimes authors get confused about what goes where, when, and why.
38 869 234 121 1048 544 220 1441 1264 798 286 204 299 388 1406 418 356 255 1491 699 838 342 298 1064 925 856 875 644 753