Today I’ll take a quick look at the front matter of your book. Wh there is no industry standard of front matter for your book, most books will have up to eight items. Only the title page and copyright page are found in all books.
Front Matter:
- Endorsements / Praise for the Book
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication Page
- Table of Contents
- Foreword
- Preface / Acknowledgements
- Introduction
The Endorsements or Praise Page:
The endorsement page is where you tell the world how good you and your book is. You are letting your potential audience know not through your own words but rather by sharing the comments of other. Here is where you list lines from endorsements and pre-publication reviews for readers to view what others are saying about the book. Not everyone will have The Endorsement or Page Page.
Next is the Title Page.
Title Page:
- Title
- Subtitle
- Author
- Illustrator
- Publisher (even if you are an indie author you let the reader know it is an independent or self-published book)
- Publisher Location (Don’t give them your street address! There are people who may be stalking you. You can use your city or a post office box plus your city)
The title type and design elements should match your front cover. Look at how the traditionally published books do it and replicate what you see.
Next time we will look at the copyright page.
Photo Credit: Pixaby