When writing a book, whether it is a fiction or non-fiction book, a novel or a small e-book, the author must choose what background information to include at the beginning. Often the publisher will also have a say. Some authors go all out and have many different introductory style pieces, but be warned that if you go too far at the beginning, readers will often get confused. However, it is widely known that if you jump right in, you can confuse the reader even more.
So how do you choose how to call the opening information and how should these pre-chapter writings be labeled? Perhaps you’ve seen a lot of these typical pre-chapter pages in books you’ve read?
- Foreword
- Dedication
- Introduction
- Prelude
- Preface
- Forward
- expressions of gratitude
The options, as you can see, are vast, and therefore it makes sense to carefully consider your options. I’ve only seen one book that contained all of this and it was a nonfiction book about the wine industry and the authors wanted to thank everyone and each co-author made a contribution to the information in the prechapter and each prechapter was written by a different person even though the dedication it was full of paragraphs of names.
This strategy worked for this particular job, although it’s not recommended, picking 2 or 3 makes sense and if you think there’s something very important to say, maybe 4. If the job is the second or third in a series, for example, a fictional novel. trilogy”, then you need to bring the reader up to speed or if it’s a fifth or later addition of a non-fiction work, that could also be a reason to go beyond 4 pre-chapter pieces.
Of course, you must be tired of overburdening the reader or sounding like a detailed writer, as this will detract from your work. For many authors, “introduction” or “preface” sounds too simple, and therefore they prefer to use other words. A dedication page is always a smart move, as it shows that the author is in full force, with friends and family, and properly grounded in society.
Acknowledgments can be used instead of a dedication page or combined, although it certainly doesn’t take away from having both. Perhaps one to thank your mom, dad, wife and children or someone who is the sole inspiration of such work, while the acknowledgments can include all those who contributed or are worthy colleagues with whom you regularly discuss such information. It’s okay to fully load the acknowledgments, but a dedication page is more about good use of white space and 2-3 lines that show emotional intelligence and sincerity, even direct empathy.
For abridged eBooks (less than 150 pages), more than four pre-chapter components is sufficient. Not appropriate, similar to calling someone for a first date before the two day period. There are cases where 5 or more pre-chapter components are appropriate, but not many and four are generally considered acceptable. If you’re going to have more than that, make sure there’s a good reason and make it count.