To guarantee a smooth publication process and a seamless transformation of your manuscript into the final layout and various electronic formats (e.g., HTML for online publication, ePub for e-book readers), the manuscript needs to be structured as follows:
¨ Front Matter:
- Title page,
- Copyright page
- Dedication (optional),
- Foreword (optional),
- Credits
- Preface (optional),
- Table of Contents,
- List of Tables
- List of abbreviations (optional).
• Text Body: It comprises the chapters containing the content of the book, i.e., text, figures, tables, and references. Chapters can be grouped together in parts.
¨ Back Matter: After the last chapter, the back matter can contain:
- an appendix,
- a glossary, and/or
- an index, all of which are optional.
Title/Author page
The information on this page is fairly consistent. It contains the full title of the book, the edition, the name of the author, the author’s academic affiliation and the book’s publisher. If there is more than one author, all their names will appear on this page.
Copyright page
The book’s copyright information is located prominently on this page. Copyright indicates the intellectual ownership of the book’s content. There is often a paragraph to explain who has the legal right to copy pages from the book. You will also find the Library of Congress call number, the International Standard Book Number (ISBN).
Dedication page
A dedication is the expression of friendly connection or thanks by the author towards another person. The dedication has its own place on the dedication page and is part of the front matter. In newer books, the dedication is located on a dedication page on its own, usually on the recto page after the main title page inside the front matter. It can occupy one or multiple lines depending on its importance. It can also be ‘in a longer version as a dedication letter or dedication preface at the book’s beginning’. Nowadays, the dedication’s function is mainly part of the self-portrayal of the author in front of his or her readers.
Foreword:
A special kind of introduction that offers supportive information relevant to the book, the Foreword is written by someone other than the book’s author.
Credits
Textbooks often contain photographs, illustrations, visual aids (graphs, charts, tables, etc.) and other specifically designed non text material. These images were all created by someone, probably other than the author(s). The credits page lists the artists, photographers, designers and creators of the book’s visuals. The visuals are considered intellectual property and ownership must be documented; that is the purpose of the credits page… a documentation of intellectual property rights for the book’s non-text media.
Preface
The preface is an introductory statement written by the author or authors specifically to the reader. The preface gives the author’s reason and purpose for writing the book, and may include a summary of problems encountered while writing the book. The preface also attempts to describe the reader; for whom the book is meant. This should not be confused with the foreward. The foreward (sometimes spelled forward) contains remarks about the book, usually written by someone other than the author.
Table of Contents
Basically an outline of the book, the table of contents lists the book’s organization. This section demonstrates if the book is written in chapters, sections or units. Nowadays there may be two tables of contents; a brief and an expanded. The expanded is comprehensive and may breakdown the organization of the chapters. Essentially, the table of contents lists all the content focused text of the book.
List of Figures—
In books with numerous figures (or illustrations) it can be helpful to include a list of all figures, their titles and the page numbers on which they occur.
List of Tables—
Similar to the List of Figures above, a list of tables occurring in the book may be helpful for readers.
Acknowledgements
This page, when it is included, is meant for the friends, family and colleagues of the author(s). This section is usually comprised of a paragraph thanking various people for their assistance, contribution and time in helping with the writing and publishing of the book.
Index
The index is a thoughtful list of words and topics taken from the text of the book. Written in alphabetical order, and organized so that it also reflects sub-topics, the index gives you an idea of the book’s subject matter. Each word is followed by the page or multiple page numbers of every instance the word (or topic) appears in a meaningful context.
Glossary
The glossary is a small dictionary designed specifically from the words or key terms used in the textbook. The definitions are only for the specialized usage in the book. Listed in alphabetical order, each entry is called a gloss. There is no set standard for how thorough the definition should be so some glossaries include pronunciation and the pages where the gloss is found in the text. Other glossaries only give the definition.
Appendix
Some textbooks have more than one appendix (plural appendixes or appendices) depending on the book’s discipline. An appendix is a page or pages that contain a variety of information that is related to the book’s topic, but not relegated to one specific chapter. For example, history books will often have maps and copies of important charters or treaties in appendixes. Math books will have a table of logarithms, and chemistry books contain the periodic table and other material.
References
Even though one, two or more authors write a textbook, the author does not make up the text. The information comes from many other places… called sources. A textbook author must list all of the books, articles, recordings, and other printed sources, that were used in the writing of the textbook. Whenever the author repeats or borrows from a source, and writes that information in the textbook, the original title and author of the source is listed in a section called references.
Bibliography
Authors read tremendous amounts of material when writing textbooks. The bibliography is a list of all the material read, that the author learned from, or contributed to his own ideas that are written in the book. Unlike the references, the bibliography does list works that were cited directly by the author.
About The Author
