Front matter, back matter, does it matter?.....

I just read an article stating that four Smashwords e-books were listed on the New York Times best seller list--http://www.teleread.com/smashwords/four-smashwords-authors-make-the-new-york-times-bestseller-list/ Only two weeks or so ago I read another article saying that Indie authors would never be listed there. Things are changing in the publishing world and they're changing fast! Very good news for all indie authors!

I'm still not on the e-reader bandwagon. I am not capable of sitting at my computer to read a book and I'm too cheap to buy a Kindle, Nook or Ipad. Because of this I'm passing on books I would really like to read. There are two books languishing on my Kindle app right waiting to be read and reviewed..

On another subject, there have been several posts on one of my FB groups asking about where to put the acknowledgements page. When I published 'The Moonstone' I found a link on the Createspace website to Joel Friedlander who has much needed information on front matter and back matter. http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2012/02/self-publishing-basics-how-to-organize-your-books-front-matter/
I wrote about this in a previous post called "Let the Uploading Begin!"  but I thought I might revisit the topic since it seems a confusing issue.

If you open a traditionally published book, you will come upon several things organized in a somewhat routine fashion..
(reviews)
1. Title page--just the name of the book
2. Other books by the author
3. Possibly another title page with a listing of publisher and author
4. copyright page
5. dedication
6. acknowledgements
7. prologue

There is a fair amount of variation in these seven items. There may be a dedication and no acknowledgments or acknowledgements and no dedication. Their order may be reversed. I have seen acknowledgments listed at the end of the book. I put mine in the front because it seemed proper to give thanks to those who helped me along the way.

Working on my first book, front and back matter came as an unpleasant realization after I'd uploaded my manuscript to Createspace. I checked through the novels in my bookshelf and then followed Joel's instructions. Part of my front matter was a short pithy blurb from a reviewer, (one I managed to obtain by sending the manuscript out before it was published) raving about the book. In traditionally pubbed books, reviews can be on the back page, on the inside flap or on the first pages. And there are usually more than one. Hard to get for those of us going the self-publishing route. For back matter, I had the first chapter of the next book in the series and my bio, but there can be a glossary or translations or any number of things at the end of the book.

I wrote about Prologues in a former post, entitled strangely enough, "Writing Prologues". Other information on this topic can be found here: http://www.foremostpress.com/authors/articles/prologue.html 

A lot to think about and organize for those of us who have chosen to do this on our own. But the pay-off is control and satisfaction, even if the monetary reward takes a while.

let the uploading begin!

Whew! I finally have a moment to write! For the past week I've been painstakingly going through the  The Moonstone. I received the proof in the mail last wednesday and when I saw the form I was supposed to use for my 80 free edits I almost lost it. I knew already that I had far more than 80 changes I wanted to make and re-uploading the manuscript seemed easier than working with their charts and graphs. It cost me a bit extra but honestly I think it was worth it.

 I've now changed the cover size as well as going for the cream paper instead of white and made slight changes to text on both back and front covers.

I realized on this second go round that the book should include what is known as "front matter"and "back matter". Luckily Createspace has a link set up with Joel Friedlander's articles that explain all of this in great detail. And so I had to create my copyright page, title page, acknowledgment page and dedication. (Did I leave something out?) And when I spoke to "my project team", they wanted all of it included in the manuscript re-upload which meant that I had to 'page break' and add it before the first page of the book. Of course the numbering is completely off now, but I assume the book will be numbered according to its new size so I'm not too worried about that. The only thing I wanted for "back matter" was my bio and a picture. Sounds easy, doesn't it?

 I spent several hours today trying to cut and crop from pictures I had in my computer. Of course I look horrible in all of them but I finally decided on one or two that were tolerable and set to work. (Next time I'm having a professional take my picture-at least they can airbrush it)

Hours later I had written a short bio, added the cropped and sized picture, hooked it on to the end of the book and uploaded the entire manuscript. That's when I found another picture that I actually liked...and so I wrote a message asking how to re-submit this "back matter". Haven't heard back yet...