What should you include when writing your book?
When writing a book you might be unsure on what to include. Below are some ideas of what you might include or like to think about including:
- A dedication – who you are dedicating your book to. Try not to be too cheesy!
- Acknowledgments – people you would like to thank for helping or having an influence on your book.
- About the author – a section about you. Research shows that readers often want to know more about a books author.
- Reviews/testimonials – it is good to get reviews before you have published so that you can include the recommendations in your book and on your cover.
- Preface/preliminary note – this is supposed to give some useful background to the reader but remember that it influences the purchase decision so make it interesting.
- Contents – a table of contents strongly advisable for non-fiction and can be useful for some fiction too.
- Introduction/Foreword – an introduction is written by you to introduce the book. A foreword is written by someone else to discuss the book.
- Prologue/epilogue (fiction books) – a prologue is put at the start of a story, to introduce the world in the story and the main characters. Epilogue is at the end, describing the events after the plots have finished. This is mostly used for fiction and can be useful to someone wondering whether to read the book – or not.
- Glossary (non-fiction books) – list of terms used, explaining certain words that readers might not be familiar with. Sometimes called “jargon busters”.
- References (non-fiction books) – list of the sources of where you found information discussed in your book. These may also be used for quotations.
- Index (non-fiction books) – list of words/phrases where useful reading material can be found. These are not needed in ebooks as readers can just use the search function on their device.
