Karen GoatKeeper's Blog - Posts Tagged "back-matter"
Book Add Ons
The book is written. The author can sit back and relax.
Big joke.
The text may be done but the book isn't. The author better keep the computer up and running. It is add on time.
When a reader opens a book, there is a title page. This page doesn't appear by magic. It takes planning. What font fits the story? How big? Is there a graphic to add? How does the title fit along with the author's name on the page?
Turn the page over and all this information is there about the book. Copyright dates, ISBN numbers, publishing rights and other author information like website address.
Is there a dedication? What about a Table of Contents? Ebooks definitely need this along with internal links so the reader can move around in the book easily. Print books need the page numbers.
Then come sections for acknowledgements, author's notes and biography. Each of these must be for this particular book. Even the biography should be gone over and adjusted for the book.
The people in the acknowledgements may want to read this over before it appears in print. Be sure to spell all the names correctly.
One other add on is popular with readers. There should be a list of other books written by the author. If the reader likes this book, another one may appear on the reading list. Should this just list the titles? Perhaps each book should have a short description. Are the titles of a series in order?
Sometimes I think writing the novel is the easy part.
Big joke.
The text may be done but the book isn't. The author better keep the computer up and running. It is add on time.
When a reader opens a book, there is a title page. This page doesn't appear by magic. It takes planning. What font fits the story? How big? Is there a graphic to add? How does the title fit along with the author's name on the page?
Turn the page over and all this information is there about the book. Copyright dates, ISBN numbers, publishing rights and other author information like website address.
Is there a dedication? What about a Table of Contents? Ebooks definitely need this along with internal links so the reader can move around in the book easily. Print books need the page numbers.
Then come sections for acknowledgements, author's notes and biography. Each of these must be for this particular book. Even the biography should be gone over and adjusted for the book.
The people in the acknowledgements may want to read this over before it appears in print. Be sure to spell all the names correctly.
One other add on is popular with readers. There should be a list of other books written by the author. If the reader likes this book, another one may appear on the reading list. Should this just list the titles? Perhaps each book should have a short description. Are the titles of a series in order?
Sometimes I think writing the novel is the easy part.
