Cookbook Front Matter (2024)

FAQs

What should be in the front matter of a book? ›

Front matter is the stuff that goes at the beginning of the book before its main content. Common types of front matter in books include a title page and copyright notice, acknowledgements, a dedication, or an introduction, preface, foreward, or prologue.

The preceding pages (the frontmatter) should use Roman numerals (i, ii, iii, etc.) although they can be left unpaged if the frontmatter is very brief. The odd-even rule applies within the frontmatter too. Page vii is an odd number (7) so it should be a right-hand page.

Back matter constitutes the various elements at the end of a book, following its main content. The front matter introduces readers to the book and its context. Knowing what front matter and back matter are in a book ensures a book is organized and provides readers with a comprehensive reading experience.

Dedication. A book dedication is a device that some authors use to bestow a high honor on a person (or small group of people) they want to praise or otherwise spotlight. The dedication page goes in the very front of the book, after the title page.

Everything in a book that comes before the story begins is its front matter. The title page and introduction are both part of a book's front matter. If you get caught up reading the table of contents in your history textbook, you can say you're immersed in the front matter.

Front matter

Appearing before the main text, it usually contains just a few pages that include the book's title, the author's name, the copyright information, and perhaps even a preface or a foreword. You don't have to include all of them, though!

Front matter includes the title pages, the writer's name, the edition, the publication date, the copyright details, the ISBN, and the publisher's name and logo. It may also include a testimonial, disclaimer, dedication, acknowledgement, contents page, foreword, preface, and introduction.

According to the Chicago Manual of Style, here is the general order of front matter: 1) Half title page (just the title), 2) series title, list of contributors, frontispiece or blank page, 3) Title page, 4) Copyright page, 5) Dedication page or epigraph, 6) Table of Contents, 7) List of Illustrations, 8) List of Tables ...

A preface, prologue, and foreword are all a part of a book's front matter, the introductory pages of a book before the main text—often numbered with Roman numerals—that include the title page and table of contents.

The terms “front matter” and “back matter” are usually reserved for the book's pages, not the outside covers. The front matter includes all the pages that come before the story. The body is the story: the beginning, middle, and end of your plot. The back matter is all the pages after the story.

Is the table of contents part of front matter? ›

The “front matter” of a book includes the title page, copyright page, dedication, table of contents, foreword or preface, and introduction.

Good to know: Forewords and prefaces are part of what is known as the “front matter,” which is all the stuff at the front of the book that comes before the actual text—title page, copyright page, table of contents, and so on. These pages are often numbered with lowercase roman numerals (i, ii, iii).

As book coach Lisa Tener explains of a foreword, “it often tells of some interaction between the writer of the foreword and the book's primary author or the story the book tells.” A book can have more than one foreword.

Endsheet: A piece of paper, usually blank, that's glued to the inside cover of a hardcover book. While the standard endsheet is white and blank, you can choose to have solid-colored endsheets or print on white endsheets. Flyleaf: The flyleaf is the loose part of the endsheet (see above).

Front Cover

It's sole purpose is to sell the book to readers, and includes essential elements such as the book's title and author name. Other elements to potentially include could be a subtitle, images, series number, or any accolades that you think will bring in more of the right readers.

Front matter can include the title page, copyright page, dedication, acknowledgments, foreword, preface, and table of contents. Body matter can include a prologue and the main chapters or contents of the book. End matter can include an epilogue, glossary, bibliography, index, or author biography.

The title page is one of the first pages in any book. It signals the beginning of the front matter and shares the title, subtitle, author, and publisher. Of course, not all books these days have a publisher. And many books don't have a subtitle.