101 TIWIK #75: Front Matter Matters

Front matter matters. So does back matter, for that fact. But front matter matters more. This is because front matter is what readers of your book will almost certainly see first, especially if they are browsing using Amazon’s Look Inside feature. It makes the first impression on your readers, and in order to make that impression great, my advice is to keep it short and simple, and get the reader to the book as quickly as possible. Less is more, with front matter.

In the interest of producing a book that appears professional, there are three basic things you should absolutely include in your front matter:

Title Page: This should be short, sweet, and to the point. Title, author’s name, and publisher. Use fonts that match your cover, and if you have a logo for your publishing company, use it here.

Copyright Page: This page goes directly behind your title page, and includes any kind of legal disclaimer you need to make in addition to the copyright, as well as things like ISBN, edition number, and more information about the publisher.

Dedication: This typically follows the copyright page, and like the title page, it will mostly be white space. The dedication should be genuine and personal to you, but for extra credit, you can also word it to fit the theme of the book.

The following kinds of front matter are optional. Again, keep in mind that the reader wants to read your book, not read about your book. The amount of space you put between the front cover and the first chapter should be minimal.

Table of Contents: You should only include a table of contents if it is necessary for navigating the book, or if chapter titles are particularly relevant. If you don’t have chapter titles, no TOC. Even if you do have chapter titles, you might consider omitting the TOC in a fiction book. When was the last time you used a table of contents to find a chapter in a fiction book? On the other hand, sometimes the TOC itself can spur reader anticipation. When I was reading the Wheel of Time, an epic fantasy series, the table of contents in each new book was a tantalizing glimpse at the direction the story might be going in. In online forums, fans would argue about the meaning of particular title chapters. The takeaway: in a fiction book, don’t include a TOC unless you can use the chapter titles to entice the reader. Or unless it matches some convention in your genre.

Acknowledgments: You can choose to put the acknowledgments in the front or in the back. I put mine in the front, as a way to remind readers that the production of the book was a group effort, and out of courtesy for the contributions of the people I am acknowledging. But I also keep it short, usually about a half a page. I would recommend that if your acknowledgments run longer than a page, you should move them to the back.

Maps: Maps are almost always presented in the front of a book. This makes them easier for the reader to find and ensures the reader will know to look for them in the first place. I personally love maps. I’m often reading books where I’m frustrated if there is not a map. Make sure the maps are well-designed and match the locations in the story that the reader will need to know about. Nothing is more frustrating to me than when the major action of a novel goes off the boundaries of the map in the front.

Other Stuff: Some books include other useful information in the front, such as a cast of characters. If you choose to do so, I suggest keeping it as short as possible. I personally prefer to put that kind of information in the back so the reader can get to the story as quickly as possible. If you do have a table of contents, you can alert the reader to the fact that there are appendices by listing them there.

Recap: Sometimes consecutive books in a series will provide a short recap of the story to this point. Again, keep it short and only include the most relevant aspects of the story, things the reader absolutely needs to know in order to follow the next book.

In the back of the book, there’s just one thing you must always include in order to convey the professionality of your book: the author bio. However, the back of the book is a great place to appeal to readers and give them more bang for their buck. They’ve just finished reading your book, they’re happy, they are receptive. What better time to ask them to take action?

Promotional Materials: I usually include promotional materials right after the last page of the text of the book, in case the reader chooses to ignore the appendices. For me, this is a simple page thanking the reader for reading and telling them about additional ways they can support an indy author: leaving a review, buying additional copies, friending me on social media, visiting my websites, etc.

A Glossary: Especially if you have a made-up world with a lot of unique names for things, a glossary will be helpful for your readers. You can also give the reader extra value here by including information that isn’t included in the book, like extra notes on how the magic system works, for example. However, make sure that nothing you include in the glossary is essential to the understanding of the books, because not everyone will read the glossary.

Other Stuff: Lists of characters and genealogies, timelines, military structure, anything you wish to include from your own notes that can enhance the reader’s experience can go here. I know one author who adds a list of music that inspires certain scenes or matches certain characters. Be generous here. You have plenty of space, and at this point, the reader can choose whether to read the information or not. Anything you think will be fun to read, put here. But make sure it is all canon and edited as thoroughly as the rest of the book. The last thing you want to do is jolt the reader out of the story and leave them with an impression of inconsistency.

Discussion Questions: Several books I have read list questions about the story for book groups to discuss. I haven’t tried doing this yet, but there’s no reason not to, if you have room and can think of some compelling questions. Obviously, this would be especially important to do if you intend to target book groups in your marketing efforts.

Sample Chapters: The back can also be a great place to let the reader sample the next book. If you have room in your page count and the next book is ready, go for it. With a warning–some readers don’t like to start reading a book when they can’t keep reading it. If you aren’t sure when (or if) you’re going to release the next book, this might lead to a breach of reader trust. My advice would be to go back (easy enough to do in the world of indy publishing) and add in a sample chapter after you publish the next book.

Author’s Note: When I was a child, I remember devouring the authors’ notes in the backs of my favorite books. It was like a portal into the author’s mind, and since I already knew I wanted to be like them when I grew up, those notes became an invaluable sort of conversation I could have with my future self. Probably just as many aspiring writers as not will be reading your book, so why not include a note talking about what your experience is as an author? That being said, I haven’t done this yet. By the time I got to this point in the publishing process, I didn’t have the energy to write an author’s note. I probably will in future books.

All of the back matter I’ve mentioned so far is optional. If you don’t want to include it, or don’t have the time or energy to do it well, you don’t have to. The last thing you’ll include, which is not optional, is the Author Biography, which I’ll discuss a few posts from now. 

In the next post, I’m going to focus in on the little matter of the part of the book that lies between the front and back matter. Should you title your chapters? Should you have chapters at all? What about prologues and epilogues? Should your book have parts, and why? Find out in 101 TIWIK #76: Structuring Your Novel, coming soon!