What goes on the copyright page? Do I need a table of contents? These are questions every self-publishing author will have to think about. A professional book designer can do this for you, but you should decide what sections you want to include. Some sections aren’t as important in today’s publishing world as a decade ago, but many are still necessary for legal, administrative, and promotional purposes. With the advent of ebooks and Amazon’s “Look Inside” option being so important for print and digital books, the order in which this material appears — and what is included — is becoming increasingly fluid.

Look Inside can be a valuable marketing tool, so it’s not always optimal to include blank pages and half-titles upfront. Publishers are taking creative license in how the book is structured, sometimes even putting the Table of Contents (TOC) in the back, which I do not advise, or condensing material that would once have been laid out over several pages into one or two pages.

We all know there’s a front and back cover, and the chapters go in between. Most people know the TOC typically goes in the front after the copyright page, and there’s a title page, but in what order? Does it matter?

In a word, “yes” it does matter — to some extent. You want your book to be easy for the reader to follow and structured so that indexers can find the information they need to catalogue the book, so while some things are negotiable, others are not.

There are three main sections of book composition:

• Front Matter
• Body
• Back Matter

There are many opinions about what should be included with the front and back matter and in what order they should appear, and while none are wrong, some make more sense than others.

The list is much longer than I’m presenting, but many sections are no longer used. Even with those still in use, not all will be in every book. My best advice is to find several books published by traditional publishers and academic presses (for nonfiction) and decide which are most important to your project.

Front matter

Front matter pages are often numbered with lowercase Roman numerals, although I’ve seen them with no numbers. These pages use the same fonts and margins (except for the title page, which usually mimics the front cover design) as the book body, but there’s always room for creativity. If you grab a handful of books, you’ll discover many use small decorations, images from the cover, or even complicated illustrations in the front matter.

Half-title: This is the first page you see when you open the book. It includes the book title set in caps and nothing else: no sub-title, no author name. The other side of this page (called the verso) is blank. The half-title dates back to when books weren’t covered until purchased. Booksellers needed something to protect the book and to identify it. Today, publishers leave the half-title page blank or include the author’s signature, short reviews, or the dedication. Don’t waste an entire verso if you choose a half-title. Start the next section on the left instead of the right to reduce pages and printing costs.

Ad card: On this page, publishers list other books written by the same author. If you don’t have other books, skip this section or use it for something else. I’ve seen author photos and bios on this page. Ami McKay’s The Witches of New York has an illustration on this page — a larger version of the crow from the front cover.

Title page: This page is usually on the right (the recto) and includes the book’s full title and author’s name. The front cover text, without the graphics, is often used. It’s also common to see the publisher’s name and imprint here. More elaborate layouts incorporate the pages of the left and right (verso and recto). Marshall Lee’s Bookmaking (3rd edition) does this.

Including some of the elements I list for the copyright page on the title page is also perfectly acceptable.

Copyright page: This is an essential section, often on the back (verso) of the title page. The copyright page should include:

• copyright notice
• ISBN
• Library of Congress Catalogue number and information
• printer’s key (the numbers 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 you see). This indicates which printing of the book it is. If you see the 1, it’s the first printing of that edition; if there is no 1, but there is a 2, it’s the second printing of that edition, and so on
• publisher’s name and address
• The year the book was published
• credits to designers, photographers, illustrators
• copyright notices for images and other materials
• disclaimers
• legal notices

Dedication page: Assuming you didn’t put it up front instead of the half-title, this page would include the names of anyone you wish to dedicate your book to or thank. Some dedication pages can be pretty humorous. For example, in the nonfiction book, An Introduction To Algebraic Topology, author Joseph J. Rotman wrote: “To my wife Marganit and my children Ellen Rose and Adam Daniel without whom this book would have been completed two years earlier.” Dedications to pets are common.

Epigraph: An epigraph is a quote or a line from a poem indicative of the book’s theme. The epigraph is sometimes used as a preface. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, the epigraph reads: “Lawyers, I suppose, were children once.” — Charles Lamb.”

The epigraph Mark Twain included in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn reads: “NOTICE Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot. BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR Per G.G., Chief of Ordnance.”

In The Godfather by Mario Puzo, you’ll find: “Behind every great fortune, there is a crime. — Balzac”

Table of contents, or TOC: The TOC lists chapter numbers, headings, and page numbers. It also includes sections after their placement, before the chapters begin. Traditionally, each chapter started on the right-hand page, even if that meant leaving the left page blank. However, to reduce printing costs, this is not always observed in today’s publishing world. In modern publishing, chapters begin partway down a page.

Foreword: The foreword is an introduction written by another person. If this person is well-known or an authority on the book’s subject matter, it can be a helpful marketing tool, so you’ll want the foreword on the front cover. I usually put the foreword of nonfiction book covers under the author’s name at the bottom, but I have also included it at the top as a tagline. This all depends on how long the forewords are and if there’s enough room on the cover.

Preface: Unlike the foreword, the preface is written by the author. The preface usually answers the question, “Why did I write this book?” You can find a good article on how to write a foreword on Grammarly.

Acknowledgment: This section is what Lee Marshall describes as the place where authors gain “goodwill or repay obligations.” It can also be as a dedication, to note credits, or be significant enough to recognize a co-author. In Eats, Shoots & Leaves, author Lynn Truss mentions many people in her acknowledgment, including “Nigel Hall (who) told me the panda joke” and “Adam Beeson (who) told me where to find the dash on my keyboard.”

Prologue: The prologue is placed immediately before the first chapter. It’s the introductory setting of the book, providing details about the place, time, and setting of the story. Instructions on how to write a prologue with examples can be found at Wikihow.

Back Matter

In the paperback version of Sarah Dunant’s Blood & Beauty (2013), the back matter includes an About the Author page, followed by About the Type which discusses the origins and history of the Montotype Dante font, which the book was set in.

The back matter can be as important as the front, particularly for nonfiction books. The following list of sections can be included in the back matter but is by no means exhaustive:

Afterword: This includes a brief explanation of how the author developed the idea for the book. For nonfiction, it can consist of updates on people mentioned in the book.

Appendix: The appendix contains materials that don’t seem to fit anywhere else: maps, tables, forms, and lists.

Notes: These are created while you write the book. They can explain the relationship between a character in the book and a historical figure or mention something about fashions at the time or travel methods. Anything the author and the reader might find interesting can go here. I love reading the notes in historical fiction books. I found the Author’s Notes in the hardcover version of A Murderous Procession by Ariana Franklin almost as interesting at the book itself.

Bibliography: The bibliography is a detailed description of references cited in the book. These are also noted in the body text. When designing and typesetting this page, each listing should follow a standard format (you might remember doing this in school). Common styles include:

• APA Citation Style
• Chicago Style
• MLA Style

Glossary: Also known as a vocabulary or clavis, the glossary is a list of phrases at the beginning of the words in the glossary for nonfiction that the beginning of the words in the glossary nonfiction, with the exceptions of fantasy and science fiction. Note: There’s no need to use caps at the beginning of the words in the glossary unless they’re proper nouns.

Index: An index is a list of items, such as people, events and places, relevant to the book that might interest the reader. These are formatted with alphabetized headings and references where they are located in the book (page, paragraph number, section). Indexing can be an enormous task, and for that reason, publishers often have professional indexers. If you want to do this yourself, detailed instructions for doing an index in Word are in this YouTube video.

Colophon: Many years ago, the colophon contained the publisher’s information, which is now almost always included in the front matter. Today’s colophon can contain information about the printer or the book’s production details, such as the fonts used.