Front Matter, Back Matter, Why Does It Matter?

*Edit: This blogpost is geared toward print books rather than ebooks.

Okay, so you're putting together the finishing touches on your manuscript. It doesn't matter your route to publication here, except that if you are going the traditional route, follow your publisher's guidelines to the letter.

You have the text of the book, but then there are the other things that go into a novel and new terminology called front and back matter to grasp. Basically, front matter is what goes in front of the actual text of your book and back matter is what comes after the text.

These can include:
Your copyright page
Acknowledgements
Dedication
Maps, Tables and/or Charts
Pronunciation Guides, Glossaries
List of Characters
List of Illustrations, List of Tables (contained in the text)
The Principles of Magic (if applicable and your readers need a chart)
List of other works you've published
Title Page
About the Author page
Table of Contents
Bibliography/References
Preface or Foreword
Epigraphs (Quotes, Sayings, or Poetry connected to your book)
Introduction
Chronology
Appendix
Notes
List of Contributors
Excerpt from the text to entice readers

If you're publishing a novel it can be a head scratcher as to what you need and where it goes.

So let's talk about needs and wants.

The two pages which are definite musts are a title page and a copyright page. The title page restates the title of the book before the reader plunges in. The copyright page contains pertinent information regarding the copyright of the book and its publication. Both are front matter.

If you want to dedicate your novel, you can have a separate page for a dedication or you can include it near the top of the copyright page. I've seen it done both ways. Some people opt out of the dedication because they plan on an extensive Acknowledgement page(s). Or you can have both. Dedications are front matter usually. Acknowledgements can be either front or back matter, although for novels, I usually find them in the back.

A quick word about Acknowledgement pages; novels didn't use to have them. Then authors started using them to recognize the help of their agents, editors, or to replace a dedication page at the front. Nowadays it's common to not only list everyone involved in the creation of a novel but to include the author's quirks when around those people. It's kind of like sitting through five minutes of credits after a movie. The only people reading through the entire list are the people mentioned, or their relatives. Express gratitude, acknowledge that putting out a novel is a team effort, but then think about editing your Acknowledgements page for the sake of brevity, just as you would the actual text of your novel. It's your personal preference, just know that most people won't care about the people you mention or what you do during late-night critique sessions. I've seen novels that have an Acknowledgement section at least four to five pages long.

Maps can be either front or back matter. Tables and charts are usually back matter, along with pronunciation guides and glossaries; lists of characters, principles of magic; bibliography/reference material; chronologies; appendixes and notes; and list of contributors.

Do you need all of these things? No. In fact, less is more. I've heard of writers who want to include all the bells and whistles of their world-building with their novel and what it does is add extra cost for extra pages. From a personal point of view, I can't count how many times I've read a large novel only to find pages of world-building information at the back where I no longer need it because, well, I've finished the book. So should you include the world-building stuff at the front to make sure readers know about it?

Well, that's a problem too, because the more pages you put between the front cover and the actual text of your novel, the more readers aren't going to actually get to that text because you've weighted the front matter with too much information. You want your readers to get to that hook on your first page as soon as possible.

It really boils down to what is necessary. Many readers know to check the back for further world building info and sometimes when they finish the book they want more in order to savor the experience.

Maps are pretty much the one thing you can get away with stowing in the front matter. They don't give away spoilers and can pique reader interest before they start the story. Pronunciation guides are useful tools if you have difficult names but putting it at the front is a red flag to readers that their ability to blissfully read at their own pace through the text might be impeded by a lot of unpronounceable names. You don't want to place anything at the front that might deter readers from getting to that first page of your story. The same thing goes for Glossaries.

Not all novels need a map. They're fun to come up with and are a great tool for the author, but readers don't always need them. Consider the world of the novel. Is it a made up place? Is it huge? Do you have settings in many different places? Are your characters traveling a lot? If you answered two of those questions with a yes, then you might need a map. If you answered three or more with a yes, then a map is a good idea.

List of your other published works; a very useful promotional tool. I've seen these either in the front matter or the back matter. Sometimes its helpful to the reader to see that list before they start the book so they can take comfort in knowing they've picked up book #1 in your series and not #7. If the story's not in a series, you can keep your front matter nice and sparse by putting your list of publications at the back where you can entice the reader to check out more of your work after they've finished this book. You could also split it, if you're prolific and have a lot of books out, by having the series list for this book at the front and promotional lists for other series and books at the end.

Likewise, an About the Author page is a great promotional tool for back matter. I've never seen it in the front matter. The reader has just finished your novel and is now curious about the person who wrote it and there you go, you have a brief bio for them to look at. Links to your website, blog, or author pages on social media go great here.

Prefaces and Introductions aren't common in fiction unless a novel has been annotated, abridged, or re-released for a special anniversary edition. Another person usually writes these. Don't think that you have to have one if this is the first publication of your novel.

Epigraphs are front matter. A quick word about using them: they can be another great enticement for the reader to get to page one and start the novel, but often readers skim past them. I think I've only seen a couple of instances where an author used an epigraph to their advantage, usually sharing pertinent backstory or world-building in lieu of a prologue. Cute quotes, poetry, and sayings from other people don't have the same effect. You should want to immerse the reader in your world and your voice. Epigraphs are another feature that are often gratuitously applied by authors. You usually don't need one. They're extra candy flowers on the icing of a cake.

An excerpt from the book: I've only seen these done in paperbacks. They are one page and typically found right when the reader opens the book as another trick to capture their interest in the story. You don't have to use this tactic, but can, if you're putting out a paperback novel.

The Table of Contents is a front matter element. Do you need one? Chapter books for kids and middle-grade novels usually name their chapters and a table of contents is a handy tool to help kids navigate through a book. It's less important in young adult and adult novels. It boils down to the style of your novel. Think again about weighting your chapter openings. A title can be an enticement or a spoiler. If you are using epigraphs or location information before your chapters (which some people do effectively) you might want to avoid chapter titles because it's a case of too much information at the start of every chapter.

I do recommend naming your chapters for your personal use when writing and editing, since it can help you as a basic outline. That doesn't mean those chapter titles have to appear in the printed version of the story. Numbered chapters streamline the reading experience and let the reader flow from one chapter to the next without stopping to process other information.

Deciding on front and back matter is a matter of personal style (or the style of your publishing house) and something I haven't seen discussed too much online. Consider your reader and get them to the story as quickly as possible. Balance that out with information the reader will need or might want in connection to your story and you as the author. Don't give in to the temptation to use every front and back matter device known to man.

Questions for you:
What front and back matter elements do you like to see in a novel?
Do you know of any other front or back matter element I didn't cover and where it usually goes?
Are there any front or back elements you think are used too much or that aren't necessary in particular genres?
Do you have questions regarding front or back matter that I didn't cover?

Guest Post: 10 Things Learned in 2012

I'd like to welcome Michelle Hauk to Yesternight's Voyage today. Michelle blogs at It's In the Details, is a fellow Speculative Fiction Group member, and a soon to be published author. You can follow her also on Twitter, Facebook, or Goodreads. She hosts a group on Goodreads devoted to discussing speculative fiction.

Her book, Kindar's Cure comes out in March of 2013.
"Princess Kindar of Anost dreams of playing the hero and succeeding to her mother's throne. But dreams are for fools. Reality involves two healthy sisters and a wasting disease of suffocating cough that's killing her by inches. When her elder sister is murdered, the blame falls on Kindar, putting her head on the chopping block.

"No one who survives eighteen years of choke lung lacks determination. A novice wizard, Maladonis Bin, approaches with a vision - a cure in a barren land of volcanic fumes. As choices go, a charming bootlicker that trips over his feet isn't the best option, but beggars can't be choosers. Kindar escapes with Mal and several longtime attendants only to have her eyes opened that her country faces dark times.

"Her mother's decision to close the prosperous mines spurs poverty and joblessness, inciting rebellion and opening Anost to foreign invasion. As Mal urges her toward a cure that will prove his visions, suddenly, an ally turns traitor, delivering Kindar to a rebel army, who have their own plans for a sickly princess.

"With the killer poised to strike again, the rebels bearing down, and the country falling apart, she must weigh her personal hunt for a cure against saving her people."

And now over to Michelle directly:

Being always slightly off my rocker, I volunteered to do a post for Joyce about ten things I learned in 2012. Ten things. Ten things. That will be easy, right? Eager to find a starting point, I looked back to last year, examined where I started it and where I ended it, and can honestly say they were not the same spot. Things did change for me. I became wiser--or maybe more experienced as a writer (definitely bolder.) Sometimes it was painful and sometimes embarrassing. I'll let some proverbs show what I learned.

Back in that faraway time of January 2012, I was querying my second manuscript, Kindar's Cure. (Strangely enough in this here and now time of January 2013, I'm querying my third manuscript, Dodge the Sun.)

10. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Is this old proverb true or false in regards to querying? After getting many, many, too many rejections over three different manuscripts, I can honestly say...querying is extremely painful.

Did it kill me?

No.

Did it make me stronger?

Eh. Maybe. Form rejections hurt as much the one hundredth time as the first time. I think I dwell on them less now. What I learned is not to let them stop me.

9. Rome wasn't built in a day. In regards to the publishing business, this one is absolutely true. Publishing moves like a snail with a hangover. To write Kindar and edit it took a year. (Nanowrite people are looking at me. What can I say? I'm slow.) From the start of the query process until I signed a contract to publish with a small press was ten months of near constant email checking and refreshing. Be patient. If you're looking for an agent or a publisher, expect to wait and wait and wait and...

8. Don't put all your eggs in one basket. What does this mean? After you send those queries, don't be sitting around pressing refresh on your email. Start a new project while you wait for responses. Then if nothing happens on your current manuscript, you'll be ready for more crushing thoughtful replies on another.

7. Fortune favors the brave. If someone is kind enough to hold a contest where you might be brought to the attention of agents, don't be afraid to enter just because the feedback is tough to bear. Just remember that contests are long shots and no substitute for putting in the work of researching agents to see which are the best matches for your work. After all, there are no quick fixes.

6. All that glitters is not gold.  Keep in mind that an offer, whether from an agent or publisher, is just the beginning. Some writers forget to look on down the road. There is more work to be done once you get an offer because now you have to build yourself as an author. If you don't believe me, then check out the promotional checklist on AQC. It's a killer.

Not only do you have to write and edit, but promote yourself and your book. It's not something that comes easily if you're a shy person. In the middle of 2012, a lot of my attention turned toward this perplexing riddle of how to draw attention to myself.

5. If you build it; they will come--eventually. I ramped up my efforts on blogging in the beginning of 2012. At first, I was writing to myself because I was the only one reading the dang thing. But gradually the followers built to where I'm not alone. Now, a lot of nice people actually leave me comments. I even have a dedicated following of spammers who leave me incomprehensible comments with links I'm afraid to click. (I highly recommend inviting real writerly guests to contribute to your blog until you're off the ground and adding pictures to your posts.)

And as for embarrassing moments as I promised above, think and rethink having giveaways on your blog. Make sure you can get people to enter so you won't be giving books to empty air.

4. If a tweet falls in the forest will anyone care? That should be a proverb, don't you think? I finally got up the nerve to join Twitter. I do not find it a great place for promotion. No matter how often someone shouts out about their book, I don't click their links. I expect many others don't either. They are all there to shout out their own business. There is just too much traffic, too much promotion, with no way to weed the good from the bad.

I do find it a great place to connect with friends and make new ones. It's also a useful place for learning from agents. You can discover some great contests. Twitter has been a timewaster and unexpected bonus. Take the good with the bad. (Ha! Two proverbs for the price of one.)

3. Don't burn your bridges behind you. In other words, watch what you say because the internet is forever. I've heard of writers responding to bad reviews or troll comments and they usually get the worst of that attempt to vindicate themselves.

2. A friend in need is a friend indeed. Help out fellow writers as often as you can. Host them on your blog. Give suggestions on their queries. Feedback their chapters. Retweet their tweets. Not only will they repay the favor, but you'll feel happier with yourself. He who gives, receives.

1. Friendship is golden. The surest and best way to succeed in life (and in promotion) is to make friends. Of course you have to be genuine; this isn't something you can fake. Nothing will serve you better than surrounding yourself with supporters. Of all the treasures writing has brought me, I value the friends I've made the most.

Blog Spotlight #20: The Book Publicity Blog

It's been awhile since I did one of these. I'd like to direct your attention to The Book Publicity Blog, a publishing insider's input on publicity and marketing.

To quote directly: "The purpose of this blog is provide tips, primarily, but also information about publishing / marketing trends that will help book publicists — and hopefully others in media and publishing — do our jobs with greater ease and efficiency."

Some of the recent posts on the blog:
Working With Book Bloggers
How to make sending e-mail more efficient
DIY Book Promotion and Publicity
What authors (and venues) need to know about scheduling book talks/signings
When you're setting up a website, what booksellers do you list?
What you need to include in your email signature

Browse around and take some time out to read, especially if you are at the stage of publishing and marketing. There are good things on this blog for beginning and intermediate-staged writers as well.

Disgruntled Reader: In Which I Find I Sound a Little Like a Literary Agent

The other day I pulled up Goodreads to check out new and existing titles to add to my to-read list and also IMDB to view some new movie trailers and see if there were any new TV shows worth watching. While I read through lists and blurbs I noticed how easy it has become to answer "no" within ten seconds. Going by summaries alone or watching a trailer a couple of minutes long, I could decide if the story idea worked for me or not. Of course, I also considered that maybe some of the summaries/trailers might have held my attention if so many of them didn't sound like simple variations of each other.

There were an awful lot of crime TV shows featured where the main character was either a grouchy detective or had some paranormal ability. I sat back and wondered how people differentiated one show from another. None of them stood out.

I noticed a similar trend with books, not only on Goodreads, but also in links I followed on Twitter or announcements done on an agent's blog. (insert YA/MG character) lives in oppressive conditions until they discover they have (insert amazing ability/power) and can now either save the world or oppress it. OR (insert MC) meets (hot paranormal person) but generic obstacle (political/social/etc.) stands in their way. All of the descriptions modeled each other and none of them stood out because of it.

I'd like to think that every one of these TV shows, movies, and books have something unique and wonderful. As described, I'm getting a blasé feel for the current trends du jour. On the upside, finding comp titles for a new story has never been easier. Making any story stand out (other than popularity statistics) is very difficult.

Query letters submitting for peer critique often fall into the same molds too. We write the trendy formula or are expected to, even if the story doesn't fit the current summary mold. Without diving in too deeply to the query process, I'd like to just put in a plug for making sure you identify what makes your story stand out from the others and be sure to mention it in the query. What makes your YA character's abilities & situation any more special than the hundreds of other YA prodigies out there? What makes your love interest or the situation involving that love interest different than the usual struggles? Do we really need another grouchy or superpowered detective/cop/attorney? And if so, there should be a better reason other than fighting crime either of the normal variety or the supernatural. (These are only three examples, you can find boxed-in niche descriptions in any genre.)

One thing that would help is character voice in these descriptions. I hear several stories praised for having strong voice, but you know what—those voices sound an awful lot alike. They do! Character traits, especially for main characters, aren't leaping out at me either. I've seen their like before many times. Or, the voice in those descriptions are completely lacking. There's a lot to be said for great characterization in a novel or TV show. I think the marketing industry is either burned out or failing, perhaps both, when I see so many cloned summaries/trailers.

Gone are the days when having an extra-ordinary power or birthright will make a story stand out. Our culture is inundated with them. High risk stakes are great too, but also very common these days. Even what the main character stands to lose is running out of steam and growing repetitive. I'm worried. How are new authors supposed to break in without happening to touch upon agents' and editors' individual wish lists, you know, the wish list made up of story types they never tire of? And that's if they haven't already signed up several other clients who write in the same mold as you do. The same worry goes for self-publishing too. Die-hards who never tire of the—say grouchy detective stories—are pretty pretty much the ones who will pick up a story just because it's that genre. Generating new readers, not so easy, unless we can give them a reason to pick our story over all the others.

We can't be out of new ideas yet, or is everyone trending to the same two or three basic story plots these days? Perhaps we're on the brink of something new taking the entertainment world by storm. I hope so.

Maybe I'm so unreasonable about this dilemma because I read several genres and have to be convinced to notice a book or show. Writers and other artists must make me a fan. Make me want to read more than that short summary, maybe open up the book and try out the first page. I don't follow willingly. Yet I'm always on the hunt for something stellar, something that I can fall in love with. New worlds, new characters, great conflicts, insightful inner journeys, stories that teach me things, and especially stories I can't figure out by reading the summary or watching the trailer alone. So help me and others like me: make your story or TV show or movie stand out from the pack. Be noticeable. The next time I comb through Goodreads or IMDB or even my local library, please let me find something I can fall in love with, instead of the terrible disappointment I felt the other day in clone-ville.