SPoaB Guide: A Free Self-Publishing on a Budget Guide

Setting up Your Book: Front and Back Matter

In the last blog on setting up your book, we looked at trim size, margins, and more. Today, I want to take a look at Front Matter and Back Matter.

Quick explanation of what the Matter is

Okay, any editors reading that title are currently having a conniption. For the rest of us, let's dive in.

The interior of your book is basically made up of three parts. Front Matter, the Body and Back Matter. Let's take a look...

Front matter

Front matter is the stuff in your book from the page after the cover till the page before chapter one. This includes the title page, cover page, etc. After this comes the body of the book and after that, what is called the 'Back Matter.' For an explanation of Back Matter, look below.

Remember, when you open a book, the page on the right is the Recto page and the page on the left is the Verso page. If you memorize those terms as I have, you may have some success in convincing people you are "learned" in the art of publishing. That's all it takes, actually. Just those two words. That's my gift to you.

Remember, your recto pages are always odd numbers and your verso pages are always even numbers. Always. Don't mess with that or your readers will mess with you.

Also, your page numbering needs to be different in your front matter. Often the pages will be numbered with Roman Numerals and then the regular numbers (1, 2, 3, 4...) will start on the first page of chapter one (sometimes that number will be invisible and number 2 will start the numbering on page 2—it's your choice).

Listed below are some of the pages you can include in your front matter. You'll notice in the list that sometimes there are two recto pages in a row. That means you need a blank page in between them (a blank verso page). NOTE: you DO NOT need all the pages below (although you do need some). This is a list of many of the pages you could have and where you would put them if you choose to include them (recto or verso).

Half title page—your title... just your title. Simple. (recto)Frontispiece—Graphic about your book, series title, list of contributors, list of other books you've written or blank page (verso)Title page—full title, subtitle and publisher name (recto)Copyright page (verso)Dedication—don't forget your mom. Remember your mom... remember or she will help you never forget. You can also acknowledge her down in the acknowledgment section (recto)Epigraph—that's a quote pertinent to your book. You can put this on the Frontispiece if you prefer (recto)Table of Contents—you can call this the index if you want and it can be your list of chapters (recto)List of Illustrations—illustrations galore? List them! (recto)List of tables—do you have a lot of tables and information in the book? Here's where you list them. If you're writing fiction and you have this, then something's a little weird with your book. (recto)Foreword—a little write-up written by someone else about your book or about you (recto)Preface—a little write-up written by you about your book as to why you wrote it (recto)Acknowledgments (recto)Introduction—you write something to explain your book (recto)List of abbreviations or chronology (recto)Prologue—in fiction, this sets the scene for the book. It's not just an early chapter, it gives a slightly different perspective and eye into the book than the rest of your book and prepares the reader for what they are about to read. (recto)

With that said, that's a lot of pages! Some of those pages are more suited to a fiction book and some fit more with non-fiction. Below is what I did for my book. You can see that I played with the order a little bit. Remember, when you're putting your book together, don't mess with certain things (title page, copyright page and the recto/verso rules), but in the end, you can order a lot of it however you like. Try to follow the prescribed order somewhat, but it's your book.