PARTS OF THE BOOKS

FRONT MATTER - introduces your book to your readers. The front-matter section, which appears before the main text, comprises a few pages that include the book's title, the author's name, the copyright information and perhaps even a preface or a foreword. Use the list of common front matter pages below to identify those pages that are suitable for your book.

HALF TITLE PAGE - is the first page of your book and contains your title only. This page does not include a byline or subtitle. The designer will add this to your book layout.

TITLE PAGE - this is a page which contains the title of the book, the author (or authors) and the publisher.

COPYRIGHT PAGE - The book's copyright information is located prominently on this page. Copyright indicates the intellectual ownership of the book's content. There is often a paragraph explain who has the legal right to copy pages from the book. You will also find the Library of Congress call number, the International Standard Book Number (ISBN).

DEDICATION - where the author honors an individual or individuals by declaring that the labor of the book is “To” [name or names]

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS - the author’s thanks to those who contributed time and resources towards the effort of writing the book.

TABLE OF CONTENTS - outlines the what is in each chapter of the book.

FOREWORD - is a “set up” for the book, typically written by someone other than the author.

PREFACE OR INTRODUCTION - is a “set up” for the book’s contents, generally by the author.

BODY MATTER - is the core contents of the book—the “story.” The core content is most often divided into discrete segments, most commonly chapters. The body matter is numbered with Arabic numerals beginning with the number “1” on the first page of the first chapter.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS - if your book includes several key illustrations that provide information or enhance the text in some way, consider creating a page that lists them. If this material is included simply for comic relief or as a visual aid, a page listing may not be necessary. Just as with the table of contents, you won't need to list the page numbers.

BACK MATTER - is the materials at the back of the book, generally optional.

GLOSSARY - this is a listing and definitions of terms that might be unfamiliar to the reader.

BIBLIOGRAPHY - most often seen in non-fiction like biography or in academic books, a bibliography lists the reference sources used in researching the book.

INDEX - is a thoughtful list of words and topics taken from the text of the book.Written in alphabetical order, and organized so that it also reflects sub-topics, the index gives you an idea of the book's subject matter. Each word is followed by the page or multiple page numbers of every instance the word (or topic) appears in a meaningful context.