Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Front-matter or back-matter?

+0
−0

I'm re-releasing a novella of mine as a self-published ebook shortly, and I'm wondering what to do with the traditional "front matter" of the book: copyright information, dedications, acknowledgements, etc. In an e-book format, would it be acceptable to have those things in the back of the book rather than the front?

The reason for this is that most ebook sales systems allow for a certain percentage of the book to be read up-front by browsers, and if you put all of these miscellanies in the front of the book, then you're giving up several pages out of the sample for something that most readers will simply skip over.

Is there some other legal or practical reason why I couldn't move these things to the end of the ebook?

History
Why does this post require attention from curators or moderators?
You might want to add some details to your flag.
Why should this post be closed?

This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/4611. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

0 comment threads

2 answers

+1
−0

The standards for ePub aren't as set as for printed works, but you should keep the copyright information at the front (and don't forget that your e-version requires its own ISBN -- the one in the printed edition can't be reused). The dedication should be at the front, but even in printed books the acknowledgements, author bio and other miscellany can be in the back matter.

There is no half-title page in an e-book, because you don't need it (it's there to attach to the cover or end papers), and your TOC sits in a sidebar rather than in the body of the book, so after the title page and copyright you would have the preface, if any, and introduction.

Amazon and the other ePub sellers I know of let you pick what you want for sample pages, so I don't think that's too much to worry about.

History
Why does this post require attention from curators or moderators?
You might want to add some details to your flag.

This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/4641. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

0 comment threads

+0
−0

For me it would depend on what would get cut. If the preview is "the first chapter," no matter how long, then leave the front matter at the front. If it's "the first ten pages," no matter where the story stops, then you might want to move the colophon and author's comments to the end, so the preview piece reads more smoothly.

History
Why does this post require attention from curators or moderators?
You might want to add some details to your flag.

0 comment threads

Sign up to answer this question »