It’s time for another article for The Writer Blog Prompt Project. Today’s topic of Front Matter. Let’s go!

Quick reminder, if you join this project and write an article about this week’s topic. Let me know and I’ll link your article at the bottom of mine.

F Is For Front Matter

Front matter is the part of the book that comes before the story starts.

This is one of those parts of the book that we all know exists but we might not give much thought to.

I am currently working on the front matter of The Blessed, so this is a good topic for me to discuss.

One thing I always do, is gather data. Sometimes a little obsessively.

So, I spent half the day pulling out books I like, both traditionally and self published, to see what other authors put at the front and in what order.

You’ll be surprised at how glaring it is in those books were the front matter is almost non-existent.

From what I can gather, in most traditionally published books, the front matter of a physical book consists of roughly this sequence :

Half Title Page

This just features the book’s title, just above middle of the page, in the title’s font. Nothing else. (amendment: this title page may instead be replaced with “praise for…” quotes.

Other Works

This is on the back of the Half Title Page and consists of a back catalogue of other books/short stories etc that the author has published (or ones that are coming soon)

Title Page

Opposite the Other Works Page is the Title Page. Unlike the Half Title Page, this will include the series title, the book title in it’s font and larger and the publishing company’s name at the bottom (sometimes with logo).

Copyright Page

This goes on the back of the Title Page. Often it is at the bottom half of the page (depending on size – these days, they take up the whole page) and are either left justified or centred.

This will include copyright details, name, date, all rights reserved, permissions, first published, imprints, address of publisher.

Also things such as CIP (British Library) or Library of Congress etc. ISBNs. (for self published authors, this is where we would state our editor, cover artist etc).

For details of what you should/could include in your copyright as a self published author, visit this article by Kindlepreneur.

Dedication

For those who want to include a dedication, this goes opposite the Copyright Page.

The below front matter pieces are not as common as the items above, and many are found in more specific genres.

Epigraph

This isn’t in every book, very much an optional. If you include one, it would go on the next page but NOT behind the dedication. The Epigraph is a sentence, quote, saying, etc that can set the tone of the story to follow. These can be from other sources, or even parts of your story’s history or a character’s quote.

Character/World Information

For those who write large worlds or have numerous characters, adding information such as character lists (to help readers to track of everyone), and details such as locations, factions, magickal systems, can be included. This is usually limited to just a few pages – additional info is included in the back matter.

Map

If you are writing a fantasy or sci-fi or something where a map of the world or specific location can be useful, this can come after the above character info or before. That is author preference. Maps can cover one page or be a “double spread.”

Acknowledgements

This is definitely personally choice – some authors put the acknowledgements at the end – especially if they are mentioning something that happened or maybe the end of the story, in said acknowledgements.

However, I have seen acknowledgements at the front too. My personal thought is leave it at the back, especially if you already have a lot of front matter.

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There are different things people add in and the above is more specific to physical books rather than ebooks as one big difference is an ebook usually has table of contents, whereas most physical books no longer do (they used it, years ago).

For self publishing authors, it can make sense cutting some front matter pages like the Half Title Page or the Dedication. Because the more pages you have to print, the more expensive that book becomes.

However, I do want to point out taking too much out of the front matter, can give the book a odd feel. I’ve seen books that had almost no front matter except a 4 line copyright page. That more than anything screamed amateur, to me.

What are your thoughts about Front Matter? What do you like to see or hate to see at the front of books?

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Thanks to anyone who took the time to read this article. If you aren’t joining the Project, let me know your own thoughts about Front Matter in the comments below!

Next week’s topic is the Glossary

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