The other day, I chatted with KT about front and back matter. Unfortunately, she received her edits back from her editor and is currently in the hellish throes of revising and editing. So while we intended to do these through her entire publishing journey, she realized putting in her edits would take more time than she thought, and we decided to suspend them.

While it was a disappointing decision on both our sides, I am going to make the most of my free time and finish publishing book 3 of my Tower City Romance Trilogy. I have also started a new book, and I’m about 3500 words into it. I’m very excited as this plot has been nudging me for quite some time.

Enjoy the last chat between KT and me, and we both wish you the very best with your own publishing journey!

KT Daxon
So. Let’s talk “inside matter”. The goodies of the book. What is the most important thing to remember when crafting the inside of your book?

Vania Margene Rheault
To format it correctly. Unjustified margins and spaces between paragraphs are unacceptable. It’s amazing how many people forget what a “real” book inside looks like.

KT Daxon 
What is the difference between a dedication, and Acknowledgement section, and are they both needed/required? Formatting. Is it centered? How do you advise an author to go about doing it correctly? You mentioned to me before about looking at other books?

Vania Margene Rheault
Looking at other paperbacks helps tremendously. The margins are justified, there aren’t any spaces between paragraphs. No headers and footers where there aren’t supposed to be. I can’t tell you the number of books I’ve bought that aren’t full-justified. It’s insane.
The CreateSpace template, for those of us who don’t know how to set those kinds of parameters up in Word, is a big help. They have almost everything you need set up in the file already. You just need to copy and paste your book’s text into it.

KT Daxon
I bought some books myself that had either big print, then small, or weren’t centered correctly. It’s definitely important. Thank God for templates, LOL. What all needs to be included?

Vania Margene Rheault
CreateSpace includes the Title Page, the Copyright Page, the Acknowledgement Page, the Dedication Page. They also include a Table of Contents that I delete. I don’t believe a fiction book needs a Table of Contents, it’s a pet peeve of mine. Besides the About the Author page in the back of the book, CreateSpace says, “You’re on your own.” So you can include anything you want back there.

KT Daxon
Good to know. Let’s go back to the pet peeve. I agree; I don’t pay attention to most of the front matter unless it’s a dedication or Prologue. What else do you believe isn’t needed, but people throw in there?

Vania Margene Rheault
I don’t think front matter is the place to ask for newsletter sign-ups or ads for your other books. I think that can go in the back. Keep in mind when a person uses the look inside feature on Amazon, they want the first page–the meat of the story. They don’t want to wade through five pages of acknowledgments, or “A note from the author.” They want to know if they’re going to buy your book or not. That’s it. So don’t crap up your front with a lot of junk. Keep it professional. Paperbacks you can find in a store can do what they want–the reader has the power to skip through to the parts they want to check out. Online it’s different, and you only can read what Amazon will show you.

KT Daxon
I always forget about Amazon having that feature to “look inside”. I should use it more often. So, let’s discuss back. What do you usually include in your back?

Vania Margene Rheault
What I included in the back are my other books, my author page, my website. A plea for reviews. LOL For books one and two of my trilogy, I added the first couple scenes of the next book. But I couldn’t do that with book 3 since I don’t have another book started well enough I would want to include it.

KT Daxon
What should authors NOT include?

Vania Margene Rheault
I’m not sure. I haven’t come across anything that turned me off. As a reader, I’m not sure how many people keep reading after they’ve finished the story. I’ve read a couple books where the acknowledgments were so long the author did put them in the back. That can be something to think about if you have a ton of people who helped you with research. If you write fantasy and have created a language or made up words, I suppose you could add a glossary of sorts.

KT Daxon
What about maps? I’ve seen some people do those.

Vania Margene Rheault
Maps are hard to format. I wanted to include one in Summer Secrets but decided it was too much work to make it fit. I still have a lot to learn when it comes to certain things. Formatting for the Kindle is a pain in the butt, and not everything you want to insert will convert correctly. If you want to get fancy, I always recommend hiring out so your files convert correctly.

KT Daxon
Good to know. Formatting…the thing that may scare me more than getting edits back from the editor lol.

Vania Margene Rheault
Yeah, formatting sucks. Conversion is iffy–you never know what will work and what won’t.

KT Daxon
True. Well, I don’t think I have any other questions about inside matter. Is there anything you want to add?

Vania Margene Rheault
Just that with the table of contents, if you publish outside of Kindle, other platforms for their e-readers will make you have one. Smashwords will put one in if you don’t, and so will Draft2Digital. I think it’s silly; I don’t think fiction needs a table of contents. But it’s a good thing to know if you decide to go wide and they put one in when you didn’t want one.

KT Daxon
Hmm, def makes me reconsider going wide.

Vania Margene Rheault
For your paperback, table of contents is a personal choice. But to me, it’s some kind of weird myth spread among indies. I guess they think it makes the book look more professional or something. I have no idea. But it just goes back to taking a fiction book, looking through it. Seeing what’s in it.

That is where our chat fizzled out. We always get to talking about non-chat related subjects, but if you have any other questions about front and back matter here are a couple more articles you can read about it.

Thanks for joining us!

Writing: Front and Back Matter for your Self-Published Book

Anatomy of a Book: Front Matter, Body and Back Matter

What’s it Matter?: The Front and Back Matter of a Book

 

 

Thanks to the Writing Cooperative and Bookstand Publishing for the photos.