Front matter that prepares the reader

Give each preliminary page a purpose

The pages before the main text may identify the title and author, supply publication information, acknowledge a dedication or explain how the book is organised. They need not all appear in every book. Begin with the material your publication actually requires, then decide what helps the reader approach the text.

Distinguish identification from explanation. A title page identifies the work and its contributors. A preface may explain its origins or approach. An introduction may begin the substantive argument and therefore belong to the main reading sequence. The labels should reflect what the material does, not merely how short it is.

Use a publisher's house requirements if they apply. Otherwise, examine appropriate books in the same broad form and choose a coherent arrangement. Conventions can guide a reader, but adding every preliminary element found in other books can make a modest project feel unnecessarily delayed.

Establish a sequence the reader can follow

Group the identifying and publication pages in a sensible opening sequence, then place any material that prepares the reader for the main text. A dedication, epigraph, contents page, foreword or preface may be appropriate, but each has a separate function. Do not give two sections different labels when they repeat the same explanation.

If someone other than the author writes a foreword, identify that contributor clearly. If an author writes a preface about the project's development, keep it relevant to the reader's understanding. An extended account of the drafting process may be meaningful to the author without being necessary before chapter one.

For a book designed for reference or selective reading, a contents page can help readers locate material. For other forms it may be unnecessary. Where it exists, its labels and page references must agree with the finished text. Generate or update it after the relevant headings and pagination are stable, then verify the output.

Design the opening as a sequence of spreads

Review how preliminary pages fall on left- and right-hand pages. An intentional blank page can create an appropriate pause, but an unexplained accumulation of blanks may make the book appear incomplete. Understand which blanks arise from the chosen opening convention and which result from accidental breaks.

Coordinate numbering and running heads with the design. A title page usually needs different treatment from an ordinary text page. The same is true of a short dedication or a full-page epigraph. Use deliberate page styles so later revisions do not reintroduce unwanted repeated elements.

Check the complete preliminary section in the final proof, including names, publication details and any permissions wording supplied for included material. These pages often receive late changes and may have been read less frequently than the main chapters.

Finally, read from the cover through to the first sustained section of text. The transition should feel clear: the reader knows what the book is, understands any necessary framing and can begin without passing through several versions of the same introduction. Remove preliminary material that does not earn its position.