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Front matter and back matter
By Lukas · updated
Front matter is every page before the first chapter: the title pages, the copyright page, a dedication, the contents. Back matter is everything after the last chapter. Most of these pages are optional, but the ones a book has come in a fairly fixed order, and most of them start on a right-hand page.
Recto and verso
An open book shows two pages. The right-hand page is the recto and always has an odd number; the left-hand page is the verso and has an even one. Page 1 is a recto. When a page has to start on a recto and the page before it is also a recto, a blank verso goes between them. Those blanks are normal and are counted in the page numbers, even though no number is printed on them.
The usual order of the front matter
This is the order most printed books follow. Leave out what your book doesn’t have and keep the rest in sequence.
| Page | Side | What it holds |
|---|---|---|
| Half title | recto | The title alone, smaller than on the title page. It is the first page counted: i, or 1 in a book counted straight through. |
| Its back | verso | Blank, or a list of the author’s other books, or a frontispiece (a picture facing the title). |
| Title page | recto | Title, subtitle, author, and the publisher’s name or logo at the foot. |
| Copyright page | verso | The back of the title page: the © line, edition, ISBN, publisher, printer, credits. Below. |
| Dedication | recto | Alone on the page, its back left blank. |
| Epigraph | recto | A quotation for the whole book. Some books set it on the dedication’s back instead. |
| Contents | recto | Common in non-fiction, optional in fiction. |
| Lists of figures or tables | recto | In books that number their illustrations. |
| Foreword | recto | Written by someone other than the author, signed with their name. |
| Preface | recto | Written by the author, about the book itself. |
| Acknowledgments | recto | In non-fiction often here; in fiction usually at the back. |
| Introduction | recto | Front matter if it is about the book, the first part of the text if it is part of the argument. |
Many self-published books put a page of review quotes before the half title, or between the copyright page and the dedication. That is fine as long as it doesn’t push the title page off a recto.
Where the body starts
The first chapter opens on a recto. In a book with roman numbers in the front matter, the page numbers restart there at 1 (see below). A prologue belongs to the story, so it counts as body, not front matter: the body, and any restart at 1, begins with the prologue. The same goes for a part title page (Part One), which sits on a recto before its first chapter. After the first chapter, later chapters open either on the next recto or simply on the next page; both are common, and the second saves paper.
Page numbers in the front matter
There are two habits. Books from traditional publishers number the front matter in lowercase roman numerals (i, ii, iii) and start again at 1 with the body; that way the front matter can change without renumbering the text. Many novels simply count straight through in arabic numerals from the half title. Either way, the number is not printed on the display pages (half title, title page, copyright page, dedication) or on blank pages; it first shows on a page of running text, such as the contents or the preface.
The order of the back matter
The back matter is looser. Its first page opens on a recto, and the rest usually follows in this order:
| Page | Notes |
|---|---|
| Epilogue | Part of the story, so it opens like a chapter and is really the end of the body. |
| Afterword | The author (or someone else) on how the book came about. |
| Acknowledgments | In fiction, usually here. |
| Appendix, notes, glossary | Non-fiction mostly; endnotes by chapter. |
| Bibliography | On a recto. |
| Index | Last of the reference sections, on a recto. |
| About the author | A short biography, sometimes with a photo. |
| Also by | The author’s other books, or the next book in a series. |
Self-published fiction often ends with a page asking readers for a review or pointing to a newsletter, after the about-the-author page. In an ebook the reader reaches them straight from the last chapter.
The copyright page
The copyright page is the verso of the title page, set small, often at the foot of the page. What it usually carries, from top to bottom: a notice such as a fiction disclaimer; the copyright line (© 2026 and the rights holder’s name) and a rights line such as “All rights reserved”; the edition and the ISBN; credits for the cover, editing and images; the publisher’s name and address; and the printer. Each edition gets its own ISBN, so the paperback’s copyright page names the paperback’s ISBN and the ebook’s names the ebook’s.
Which of these lines a book legally needs depends on where it is published. In Germany and Austria the press laws ask for the publisher and the printer by name, and for a printed book the EU’s product safety regulation (GPSR, Regulation (EU) 2023/988, in force since 13 December 2024) asks for the manufacturer’s name, a postal address and an email address, usually on the copyright page. German and Austrian trade bodies count a self-publisher as the manufacturer; the regulation speaks of items and doesn’t mention ebooks. The German version of this guide goes through what the law texts say, with sources.
In an ebook
An ebook has no rectos and versos, and no half title: it opens on the cover, then the title page and the copyright page. The reading app shows the contents from the file’s navigation, and most ebooks add a contents page as well. Some ebooks move the copyright page and the dedication to the back so that the store’s sample reaches the first chapter sooner.
How Kernsetzer builds these pages
Kernsetzer finds the front and back matter in your manuscript: the dedication and the epigraph in Word by their styles, the copyright page by a heading “Copyright” or “Impressum” or by a “©”, “Copyright”, “ISBN” or “All rights reserved” in its text, and the rest by their headings (“Preface”, “Acknowledgments”, “About the Author”, “Also by …”, in English or German), as the Word manuscript guide shows. The manuscript’s order stays as it is; only the half title, the title page and the copyright page are put first. A contents page you typed is left out; Kernsetzer builds its own from the headings. The half title, the title page and the copyright page are made from the book’s details: you fill in the title and the author for the title pages, and for the copyright page a notice, the © line and rights line, the edition, the ISBNs, the credits, the publisher with address and contact, and the printer. The theme sets them small at the foot of the title page’s verso in that order. If the manuscript has its own copyright page, Kernsetzer uses it as written instead.
The half title, title page, dedication, epigraph and contents each start on a recto, with the blank versos added where needed. The first chapter starts on a recto; with roman numbers in the front matter (the default) it restarts the page numbers at 1. The theme settings choose roman or arabic numbers for the front matter, whether chapters open on a recto or on the next page, and whether a printed contents page appears (off by default, since fiction rarely has one). Back matter opens a little lighter than a chapter. In the EPUB the half title is left out, the copyright page Kernsetzer makes from the book’s details carries the ebook’s ISBN and no printer (one from your manuscript is used as written), and a contents page and the navigation are always generated. Sign up for the beta.
Sources: the usual book conventions, and KDP’s help page on front matter, body and back matter, read on 30 October 2026, which gives a similar order and puts the half title, title page, dedication and contents on the right. Publishers differ in the details; look at a few books like yours.