Back Matter for Your Children's Books Part Two

Carolyn Howard-Johnson shares writers’ resources on her award-winning blog Sharing with Writers

By Karen Cioffi, Children’s Ghostwriter

The first part of this article was featured Last month. It covered: (1) About the Author (2) Afterword / Author Notes (3) Additional Information (4) Reading Information.

Now we’ll move on with the back matter for your children’s book, starting with number five.

5. Activities

To further engage the young reader and teacher, you can offer activities related to the story.

In “Walking Through Walls,” one of the activities was for the reader to draw a picture of a dragon.

Most picture books don’t include an activities page. Again, there’s usually not enough room.

6. Glossary

Depending on the topic of your chapter book or middle grade book, you may want to or even need to include a glossary in the back matter of your book.

The glossary lists words that the child may not be familiar with and gives the definition.  

Glossaries are most often used in nonfiction children’s books rather than fiction ones. Although I can see its purpose if you’re writing a fantasy world and created words specific to that world. A glossary would come in handy.

7. Promotional Page

This page is a must for every book, although the picture book may not have room for it. But if at all possible, include this page if you have other genre related books for sale.

You can include excerpts of forthcoming titles and/or titles already available for sale. You can also include a call-to-action (CTA) to sign up for your newsletter or to visit your website.

As an author, you also need to be a book marketer. You need to take every advantage you can to promote your books. And, what better place to sell your other books than to a person reading one of your books.

There are also pages such as an Index, an Appendix, a Resource List, and a Bibliography, but again it depends on the type of book you’re writing and the topic. These pages would not pertain to a picture book.

A Word About Picture Books

The industry standard picture book is 32 pages. There are though also 24 pages, 40 pages, and 48 pages. There are even picture books that are 64 pages. I’ve seen these in children’s fiction and nonfiction self-help books.

The reason 32 pages is the standard is because it’s the best number for cost-effective printing. And, it creates a neatly bound book. It just works out all around to be the best fit physically.

Why I mention this is because while you think you have 32 pages, you really don’t.

The first page (Page 1) and the last page (Page 32) are used to glue the front and back book covers onto the book in many cases.

This brings you down to 30 usable pages.

Well, not quite.

Figure on a minimum of another 4 pages for front matter and back matter. This brings you to 26 pages of text and illustrations – 13 spreads.

A spread is the left page and right page when you have the book open.

If you forego the back matter, and keep all your front matter on two pages, you may have 28 pages for story and illustrations.

But, another factor to consider if you’re self-publishing is that the publishing service may have their own formatting requirements.

I’m working with a series client who was told by the publishing service that she couldn’t use Pages 1, 2, 31, or 32. That left her with only 28 pages for front matter, the body of the book (the actual pages for story and illustrations), and the back matter.

This became a big problem as I wrote the story thinking we had 26-pages for content and illustrations, along with the client’s back matter. My client ended up having to go with a 40-page book for the series.

Keep in mind that if you’re a professional, such as in healthcare, and want to include additional information on the story topic, you’ll need more pages. I would strongly recommend a 40-page or 48-page picture book if this is the case. You wouldn’t want to short-change the story or illustrations for lack of space.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Karen Cioffi is an award-winning children’s author and children’s ghostwriter, rewriter, and coach with clients worldwide. She is also the founder and editor-in-chief of Writers on the Move and an author online platform instructor with WOW! Women on Writing.

Karen’s children’s books include Walking Through Walls and The Case of the Stranded Bear. She also has a DIY book, How to Write Children’s Fiction Books. You can check them out at: https://karencioffiwritingforchildren.com/karens-books/. 

If you need help with your children’s story, visit: https://karencioffiwritingforchildren.com. 

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MORE ABOUT THE BLOGGER Howard-Johnson is the multi award-winning author of fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry. She is also a marketing consultant, editor, and author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers including the multi award-winning The Frugal Book Promoter (http://bit.ly/FrugalBookPromoIII), now offered in its third edition by Modern History Press. Carolyn’s latest is in the #HowToDoItFrugally Series of books for writers is How to Get Great Book Reviews Frugally and Ethically. She has two booklets in the #HowToDoItFrugally Series, both in their second editions from Modern History Press. Great Little Last Minute Editing Tips for Writers (http://bit.ly/LastMinuteEditsII) and The Great First Impression Book Proposal (http://bit.ly/BookProposalsII) are career boosters in mini doses and both make ideal thank you gifts for authors. The one on writing book proposals is also available as an Audio Book. The Frugal Editor (http://bit.ly/FrugalEditor), now in its second edition, is the winningest book in the series. Carolyn also has three frugal books for retailers including one she encourages authors to read because it helps them convince retailers to host their workshops, presentations, and signings. It is A Retailer’s Guide to Frugal In-Store Promotions: How To Increase Profits and Spit in the Eyes of Economic Downturns with Thrifty Events and Sales Techniques (http://bit.ly/RetailersGuide). In addition to this blog, Carolyn helps writers extend the exposure of their favorite reviews at TheNewBookReview.blogspot.com. She also blogs all things editing–grammar, formatting and more–at The Frugal, Smart, and Tuned-In Editor (http://TheFrugalEditor.blogspot.com). Learn more and follow for news on her new releases direct from Amazon at http://bit.ly/CarolynsAmznProfile.