Front matter

Front matter is the material that comes before the main text of a book. In a print book it typically includes, in this order:

• Half title: the title alone, on a right-hand page
• Title page: title, subtitle, author and publisher or imprint
• Copyright page: copyright notice, rights statement, ISBN, edition, credits and, for fiction, a statement that the characters and events are invented
• Dedication and, if you like, an epigraph
• Table of contents: expected in nonfiction, optional in many novels
• Foreword or preface: mostly in nonfiction

Front matter pages in print are traditionally numbered with lowercase roman numerals, and chapter one starts on a right-hand page as page 1.

Why it matters for indie authors

Complete, well-ordered front matter is one of the signs of a professionally published book, and the copyright page records the edition and your rights. In ebooks, though, front matter has a cost. Amazon’s free sample starts at the beginning of the book, so pages of acknowledgments and lists before chapter one use up the sample a reader sees. A common approach is to keep ebook front matter short and move acknowledgments, also-by lists and author notes to the back matter.

Example

A thriller’s print edition opens with a half title, an also-by list on the back of it, the title page, the copyright page, a one-line dedication and then chapter one. The ebook drops the half title and moves the also-by list to the back, so the sample reaches the first scene sooner. It keeps a linked table of contents, which e-readers use for navigation.

The free Copyright Page Generator drafts a copyright page you can check and paste in.

Common mistakes

• Too much before chapter one in the ebook, which shrinks the useful part of the sample.
• A missing copyright page, or one that lists the ISBN of a different format.
• Inconsistent page numbering, such as arabic numerals running through the front matter or numbers printed on blank pages.
• Chapter one starting on a left-hand page in print.
• An ebook table of contents that doesn’t link to the chapters.