Parts of a Book

Books are traditionally organized into three main parts: front matter, the body, and the back matter. The front matter can include: the book title, publisher, copyright, table of contents, introduction, and it gives the reader an overall tone of the story. The main body is your narrative, or in nonfiction it can be your arguments, data, and other valuable information. Your back matter contains source notes, appendixes, about the author and other resourceful information. These elements should appear in specific order, unless the author has a good reason to deviate from the order.

Below is a list to get you started. Not all books will contain all of this information, and some may contain additional information not listed. This list should help you organize your book into the correct sequence. This outline follows The Chicago Manual of Style 1.4 outline with a few additions. The indication of recto (right-hand page) or verso (left-hand page) only applies to print-and-bound books since most eBooks do not have left/right pages.

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ISBN 101 for Authors

More often than not, the authors I work with have questions about the purpose, use and how to purchase an International Book Standard Number (ISBN). I’ve found that many authors confuse the ISBN with the Bookland EAN barcode that goes on the back cover of printed books, thinking they are the same thing. They are also confused about whether they need to buy their own ISBN or if they should just use the free ISBN that some print-on-demand companies offer. If you fall into any of the these categories of confusion, I’m here to help.

About the ISBN

The ISBN became an international standard in the 1970s to solve the issue of it being difficult to locate a particular book since titles and author names can overlap. It allows each version of a published book to have its own unique identifier making it easier to track. The information associated with your ISBN includes your title, author name / publisher name, price and more.

Who needs an ISBN?

If you plan to publish and sell your book through any retail channels, you will need an ISBN.

You don’t need an ISBN if you are planning to create the book for private use only. This could include:

• Personal publications: ex) recipes, family history, photo book
• Workbooks for seminars or presentations
• Training manuals, handbooks or other material for internal use within a company
• Books or materials that are only intended as incentives or for giveaways

However, if you plan to eventually publish it for commercial use, you’ll need an ISBN at that time.

Copyright Page

There have been times where I’ve received a book to format and the author hasn’t included a copyright page. I always add in a very minimal one at that point, but it makes me wonder how many other authors just don’t include one.

Elements of a copyright page for U.S. authors

There are only two elements that are required for a copyright page.

1. The copyright statement.
   Copyright © 2015 by (Author Name)
2. All rights reserved.  Which it can be as simple as just that statement. However there is additional information that can be added like the example below.

Picking Your Trim Size

Book sizes in printing terms are called trim sizes. In the last stage of production a book is trimmed, which is how it gets its name. There isn’t a set size that you should choose, but there are a few things to take into consideration when picking your trim size.

Most authors will be using a print-on-demand service like CreateSpace or IngramSpark. Both have a large list of trim sizes to choose from. So, how do you know which one to choose?

First, break it down based on what type of book you have written. Then look at your word count and determine how many pages your book might be*. Once you know that, look at the cost of producing the different sized books and make your decision from there. Also, take into account the page color, as that can limit your selection as well.

Pagination Styles (Widows & Orphans)

There are two groups out there when it comes to pagination style, so you’ll have to decide which group you fall into. There’s the “squared-off pages” group and the “no widows or orphans” group. Let me explain the difference.

Image 1

Through the years, different generations have learned alternative definitions of the word “widow” and “orphan”.
Here’s how I learned it:
A widow, is a lonely line at the very bottom of the page. It’s when only one more line will fit at the bottom and that line is the start of a new paragraph.
An orphan, is a lonely line at the very top of the page where the paragraph ends.

(Image 1 depicts these two instances)

Now, other generations learned the opposite meanings. So for some, a widow is at the top of a page, and an orphan is at the bottom. Regardless of how you learned it, the information below is still the same. For this, we will use the words as defined above.

Paragraphing Style

There are two types of paragraphing styles used in the book industry and I often see them misused. Now, you may be wondering what is a paragraphing style? Writers organize their books into parts, chapters, sections, and then into paragraphs. Paragraphs have become a standard way for writers to organize their ideas into a book or story. When there is a new paragraph, it breaks the flow and sends an important signal to the reader. This is the author letting the reader know that a new thought or change is happening and by using a new paragraph you’re sending that subtle signal. Readers barely notice this interruption since they’re familiar with the conventions of written language.

These are the two basic ways to signal a new paragraph:

1. You indent the first line of the paragraph. This indent is typically about .25″ and gives a clear, visual signal that a new paragraph has started.
2. You add space between each paragraph. The width is typically a line space, which is the same amount of space between one line in the paragraph and the next. With this style, it appears that there is a blank line between each paragraph, which is the signal.

The second method is due to the internet where this is utilized all the time. For instance, I’m utilizing it right now. However, reading on screen is very different than reading a printed book. Having the extra line space on screen makes it a smoother read, however in a printed book it’s more of a disruption and doesn’t aid in continuous reading. Not to mention that there are times writers use a line space or paragraph break to indicate a scene change, point-of-view change, or different theme within the chapter. Therefore, it’s best for the readers if you stick with the “indented paragraph” style.

Headers and Footers

Headers and footers are often overlooked, yet play an important role in book design. They are the area above and below the main body of text that contain the page numbers along with other information. The official term for the text in the header is “running head” and the footer is “running feet”.

The running head usually contains the book title on one page, and then the author name on the opposite page. Typically, the author’s name is on the left page, and the book title is on the right page. Depending on your book, you can choose from different options for the running heads, which I’ve listed below.  Your running head can be located on the outside corners of each page, or the center of each page. I don’t recommend positioning them on the inside of each page as it can make them harder to read and a distraction. More advanced running heads can get away with it – for example, if you have information all the way across – but for your typical fiction novel, it’s best to stick with the outside corners or the center.

Page numbers can be located in either the header or the footer. The classic style is to have the page number centered in the footer, and then the author name/book title centered in the header. But, there are many different combinations that you can do. I recommend picking up a few of your favorite books and seeing how they treat their running heads and feet.

Paragraph Settings

If there is one thing that you change when it comes to paragraph settings, I beg you to change the first line indent. The default setting in MS Word is 0.5″ which is way, way too deep for even a 6″x9″ trim size. A good indent is 0.25″ for smaller trim sizes and 0.3″ looks nice for larger trim sizes.

Indent or not to indent? The first paragraph at the beginning of each chapter, subheading and after a scene break can be indented, or not indented. A majority of the time, it’s not indented because if you recall, the reason we indent a paragraph is to signal to the reader that a new paragraph and thought is occurring. Since it’s the first paragraph, you’re already signaling this by either space above the paragraph, a symbol, or another break in the flow of text (subheading), so it is redundant to signal them again.

Hyphenation is another item to take into consideration. InDesign has some great control options, whereas MS Word has less, but it doesn’t hurt to adjust the hyphenation settings to make the text easier to read and more appealing.