Front and back matter checklist

Everything that goes before and after the story, in the order it goes in. Print and ebook want different things, so pick the edition and the list changes.

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Front matter

The story

Back matter

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What goes where, and why

Two rules cover almost every decision on this list. Anything the reader needs in order to read the book goes in front of the story. Anything about the book goes behind it.

In print the front matter obeys the spread. Half title, title page and dedication all sit on a right hand page, and the copyright page sits on the back of the title page because that is the one place it has always been. Front matter is numbered in lower case roman numerals, or not numbered at all, and the arabic numbering starts at the first page of the story. Padding to a right hand page is why your final page count moves in twos.

In an ebook none of that applies. There are no spreads and no blanks, the contents has to be a real linked table, and the sample a reader sees on the store starts at the beginning of the file. Every page of front matter is a page of your sample spent on something that is not your first line.

Galley builds the matter pages with the book rather than beside it, and generates the copyright page from the edition's own metadata, so the ISBN on it is the ISBN of the format you are exporting. More in structure and publishing.

For working things out, not for signing anything. Printers and retailers set their own rates and specifications, change them without notice, and none of them is affiliated with me or with Galley. I last checked this page in August 2026. Confirm on the official page before you commit money to a price, a print run or a contract.

Questions

What order does front matter go in?

Half title, then the title page, then the copyright page on its back, then dedication, epigraph and contents. The story starts after that. Anything the reader needs in order to read the book, like a map, goes before the story. Anything about the book goes after it.

What has to be on a copyright page?

The copyright notice with your name and the year, the edition and printing, the ISBN for that format, your imprint, and for a novel the disclaimer that it is a work of fiction. Add credits for any quoted lyric, poem or photograph, because that is where the permission you paid for gets acknowledged.

Does an ebook need front matter?

Less of it. There are no blank pages to fill and no right hand pages to respect, and Amazon’s Look Inside opens at the start of the file, so a reader who has to scroll through six pages of front matter may never reach your first line. Move the copyright page to the back if you can, and keep a linked contents.

What is the difference between a prologue and a foreword?

A prologue is part of the story and you wrote it. A foreword is about the book and somebody else wrote it. A preface is about the book and you wrote it. Novels almost never need the last two.