Front Matter

In sequence, the opening pages of your book will include the following. (These guidelines are explained in detail in The Chicago Manual of Style, published by the University of Chicago Press.)

i. First page, right

Half title. Just the name of the book. (Not required)

ii. Second page, left

Blank, or series title (if applicable) and contributors may be listed on this page.

iii. Third page, right

Title page. This page displays the style of the cover but is usually limited to text with no graphics: Title and subtitle, author, publisher. The exact address of the publisher is not usually given--just the name, city, and state.

iv. Fourth page, left

Copyright page. Copyright date and name of copyright holder (usually the author), name and complete address of the publisher, ISBN, country where printed ("Printed in the United States of America"), legal information including "All rights reserved" and other restrictions you wish to specify.

v. Fifth page, right

Dedication (if you have one)

vi. Sixth page, left

Blank

vii. Seventh page, right

Table of Contents

viii. Eighth page, left

List of illustrations (if you have one)

ix. Ninth page, right

Foreword (if you have one). The foreword (notice the spelling; it is not a "forward"!) is written not by the author but by an authoritative person who has agreed to prepare a brief essay on the general subject of the book.

x. Tenth page, left

Preface (if you have one)

xi. Eleventh page, right

Acknowledgements (if not mentioned in the Preface)

xii. Twelfth page, left

Blank or start introduction if not included in the text

xiii. Thirteenth page, right

List of abbreviations or the chronology of the book (if applicable)

xiv. Fourteenth page, left

Blank

1. Fifteenth page (right)

Start the text, always on the right page.

Back matter

Appendix. Some authors provide an appendix after the related chapter, but most consider the placement of this type of material throughout the book to be confusing and disrupting. Better to place the appendix (or appendices) at the end of the textual material for your book.

Glossary. You may also include a glossary of unusual terms at the end of the book, and for scholarly works a bibliography is essential. The last section of the book is usually the index.

Other notes

Right page, odd page number. Your book will probably vary from the above set of pages, but be sure to follow right-left designations for the title page, copyright page, dedication page, table of contents, and starting page for the text.

Numbering system. Some publishers start the very first title page of the book as page 1 using Arabic numbers. Griffith Publishing believes it's more elegant to use lower case Roman numerals in italics (v, x, iii etc) for the pages before the text begins.