The composition of a book
About
The structure of a book can described as being composed of the following part.
Articles Related
Components
Front matter
- Half-title: Usually contains:
- a picture,
- the title in fancy letters,
- and anything you would expect to have in the cover page. This is page 1, and it is a right side page.
- Empty: This is page 2, and it is a left page. It's the back of the cover page, and usually left blank.
- Title page: A boring looking but elegant composition with the title (again), the sub-title, the authors, and little else. This is page 3, a right page, and the actual first page of your book.
- Information (copyright notice, ISBN, etc.). This is page 4, a left side.
- Dedication if any, else empty. This is page 5, a right side. The idea is that table of contents starts in an even page, as it is not a title.
- List of figures (can be in the backmatter, too)
- Preface chapter. There can be more than one. You can present the author(s), your intentions, or whatever information relevant to introduce your book.
Front matter is also a term used to design the definition of metadata in a markup document. See Markup - front matter
Main matter
Main topic, divided in chapters. Optionally, chapters are organized in parts.
Appendix
Some subordinate chapters
Back matter
- Bibliography
- Glossary / Index