What Goes in the Back Of Your Book?

You're done writing and you might be tempted to say the end and be done with it. Book closed, Back cover, Done, done and done. But the back matter of your book is where you can add some important content for your author, platform and audience. So if you're looking for the best practices on back of the book material and some things we do a little differently at Book Launchers. And why? Well, then this video is absolutely for you. Hey there. I'm Julie, the book broad of Book Launchers. We we recently were criticized for our unconventional methods by a company soliciting one of our authors to work with his marketing company. We use the Chicago Manual of Style, but with our own house style blended in. And the reason is not because we don't know what we're doing, but because we're focused on book marketing and author platform building at every stage. Chicago Manual of Style is a book of rules. It has value. And sometimes you may choose to break the rules for a good reason. One of the things we don't do is bulk up the front of the book with things that aren't going to help sell the book. For example, we will generally bump things like acknowledgments to the back of the book. I want to kick it or smack it here, smack it. Acknowledgments. Off you go. We recommend most authors skip having a foreword unless it's going to be a real asset to the book sales or the author's credibility. We rarely recommend a preface, but. And we get right to the point with introductions. And sometimes we don't even have an introduction at all. This means my list for what's going at the back of your book is going to be a wee bit different than if you follow the rules. But do you know why we break the rules with this? Go ahead, take a guess and type it in the comments below. And did you know if you comment the day a video is released, you get entered to win? Some of our fabulous book launchers swag. We have mugs, journals, T shirts, magnets, and we're always adding to that list. And when you comment on any video, the day it comes out, you get entered to win and you and I become friends. Go ahead, try it. Okay, so did you type into the comments that we focus on making the early pages of your book sell your book when someone clicks on the look inside feature of your book on Amazon or a preview section on other viewers. You're right. High five. Okay, so the front of our book is focused on things like the required copyright page. I gotta Buy this book Table of contents A dedication that engages the reader, an optional call to action thanks for buying this book download invitation and a get to right to why I absolutely have to read this book Introduction with the exception of the copyright page, this is all sales material. So the back matter of the book. Well, that's where you put things like acknowledgments and even endorsements if you want to put them in your book at all. I'm mixed on this. I think you should be using endorsements on your Amazon Author central, your book page, your editorial reviews, your media materials. But I am not 100% convinced that they will sell your book when you put them in the front of the book. But it's your call. Might work for some people, but ultimately your back matter in a c a Chicago Manual of Style world would be afterward Appendix or addendum Endnotes Bibliography Author bio Coming soon or also by in the book launcher's world, it's more like afterward if you have it. We more commonly put the acknowledgments here. Appendix or addendum Endnotes Bibliography Bulk buy download offer Hire me to speak page and author Bio so what are all these things at the back of your book? Well, the afterword. This can be different things to different authors. If your book is research heavy or something interesting happened while writing, you can share that here. It's a connection point for you and your audience if you want to have it. Personally, I don't write one because it's kind of formal for my conversational style. My afterword words are really the final words in my book. Then I'd hit you with the acknowledgments. Up next is the appendix or the addendum. The appendix provides extra details, often research or ancillary content that some readers find interesting. But it would have bogged the book down to include it in the content of the book. Traditionally, the addendum adds new material after the first printing or first edition, but I've seen appendix and addendum used interchangeably, so I wouldn't get too fussed about this. This section can also include a glossary or an index. Endnotes and bibliography also appear back here. Next, I tend to use footnotes in my books, but that's because mine aren't research heavy and there's not a lot of references. If you have a lot of references, you'd have endnotes. Then your bibliography would detail all your research and reference material. If you have copyrighted material in your book, you would put the copyright permissions here too. If you've used any copyrighted material in your book, the copyright permissions page is where you show that you obtained permission to use them. Then I recommend A single page that sells your book in bulk, leads people to your speaking page or services or free download or even social media connections. Many people may not care that they can contact you directly to buy bulk for your book, but every once in a while your book will end up in the hands of someone that might want a copy for everyone in their organization and voila. You've just made a 500 book sale from having a single page in the back of your book. This page is also a great place to invite your reader into your ecosystem too. You can tell them about courses, speaking, social media, and then finally wrap it all up with your author bio. If this is a hardcover book, your author bio is probably on the dust cover or the back cover, but if not, put your author photo and your bio on the last page. If you have other books, you may have a page here that is also bi that leads the reader to check out more of your work. My challenge to you is to end your book with a call to action or an invitation of some kind. If this single page only generates one bulk sale or one speaking opportunity, or one high value relationship, isn't it worth it? Now, there's a ton of videos I could recommend that you see after you hit that thumbs up button, but I think you're now wondering about writing acknowledgments, especially ones that aren't boring. And that video is right here for you. Or possibly you're thinking about whether your introduction is going to sell your book. If you are, congrats. That's some savvy book author thinking there, and you should click right here for a video all about that. Either way, you're a delight to hang out with and I can't wait to read your comments on the next video that you view.