We humans are remarkable creations of GOD. Each of us are like separate worlds that were framed within our mothers before we were born, consisting of multiple organs and systems that allow us to move, breathe, and have our being. In a way, books are quite similar to people. They're physical items filled with ink-printed words and an author's imagination, and have the power to touch our emotions, influence our minds, and change our perspectives in different ways. They can supply comfort when we're alone and can sometimes feel like listening to a little friend. New books smell refreshing, and old books...well, they have a distinctive smell to them too, many which reminds me of a cross between gym socks and molded cheese. But you know what people say, "Don't judge a book by its cover." Outside of the cover, there are many parts authors can include in their books or novels. But first, let's go over 17 parts of a book or novel, starting with the exterior basics of these literary beings.
LOOKING AT THE OUTSIDE
The outside of books and novels are pretty self-explanatory. There are three main parts that make up every book. These include the front cover, the spine, and the back cover. Now, let's briefly examine them and what we can expect to see on these three different parts.
EXTERIOR
1. Front Cover
The front cover is where the main title and subtitles are placed and sometimes also the name of the author of the book. In some cases, book teasers are also shown on the front covers of books or novels, as shown on the front covers of my two novels Eva's Promise and The Pact of Freedom, or snippets of reviews as shown on my copy of the Christian fiction novel The Reason by William Sirls in the third photo in the slider gallery below.
2. Back Cover
The back cover is usually where a short, paragraph summary is sometimes placed called a blurb, especially for fiction novels and books. The blurb is a part of your book's metadata, another subject I'll discuss later. This allows readers to know what your book is about. It’s kind of like a business card used to draw readers' interest in making a potential purchase, and especially if your book's sold in bookstores. Below on the back of my Uncle Tom's Cabin novel by Harriet Beecher Stowe, is an example of a blurb.
3. Spine
The spine is the thinnest part of the book that connects the front and back covers. The word count, the approximate number of words per page, the font type and size, and the interior layout dimensions all can determine how thin or thick the spine will be and how many pages you’ll have in your printed book, but specifically the word count, the page count, and the interior layout. Usually, the book title and author name are on the spine, but some spines only have the book title, as one of my writing references Write a Novel and Get It Published by Nigel Watts. Larger fonts will give you more pages, while smaller fonts may lessen your number of pages. There are many different kinds of interior layout dimensions for different types of genres and books. For example, a picture or cooking book will have a much wider layout than a standard novel.
💡Tip #1: ENSURE THE FONT IN YOUR MANUSCRIPT IS STANDARD SIZE. Use the standard font size of 12 pt. Anything smaller than that may be too small in your printed book, depending on the font type and interior layout dimensions. Even if it looks bigger on your PDF manuscript document, there's no guarantee it will when your book prints. (I know from personal experience, so be careful...👍🏽)
So, how can we estimate the page count for our books to help calculate our spine size?
It's simple. Just divide the word count of your manuscript by the approximate number of words per page in a printed book. Approximately, there are 250 words per page in a printed book. If you open up a standard book and count the number of words on a page, you will have at least 250 words or around that number on a single page.
Go ahead, open a book and see for yourself!
Let's say you have a book with 75,000 words. To estimate your page count, all you would do is divide it by the standard number of words per page, 250 words.
E.g. 75,000/ (250 words per page) = 300-page book.
From there, you can take the page count and whatever your interior layout and publishing choices are to create the template of your book cover, and get the spine size of your book by using a spine and weight calculator, such as the one IngramSpark offers for authors on their website.
💡Tip #2: WORDS PER PAGE CAN VARY BASED ON SPACING. The number of words per page can depend on the spacing in your written manuscript. 250 words is said to be the approximate number of words per page in a double-spaced manuscript, whereas 500 words is said to be the approximate number of words per page in a single-spaced manuscript.
(📌Note: The above explanation was just an example. DO NOT GUESS ABOUT THIS. Wait until you know your word count and page count exactly before you use the cover template generator and spine and weight calculator.)
LOOKING FROM THE INSIDE
Now that we've gone over the exterior parts, let's take a look at the inside contents of books and novels. Within every book, there are two main sections which consists of specific types of pages. These two sections are the front matter and the back matter. Front matter is all the pages at the front or beginning of a book, while the back matter is all the pages at the end or toward the back of a book.
INTERIOR
FRONT MATTER:
📗 4. Title Pages
The first page is usually the title page, which displays the title of the book and sometimes also the author's name below it. In some cases, there may be more than one title page. The first which shows just the name of the book, and the second which shows the book title, the author’s name, the publisher, and the publisher's location. This is what I like to do for my Christian novels, as I did in my current novel, The Pact of Freedom in the gallery below.
📗 5. Copyright
This page lists your publication information, including the book title, the author's name, the copyright year, the ISBN numbers for each book format, the publisher, the publisher's location; and in some cases, information of the library of congress. In the photo is the copyright page from my current novel, The Pact of Freedom.
📗 6. Dedication
The dedication is where the author places a short message of who the book is dedicated to or for. Perhaps there’s a personal experience you’ve had with a special friend or loved one or you interviewed someone for research and want to give them a shoutout. Either of these examples would go here. For my dedication, I usually just put "For family and friends," as the example below from my current novel, The Pact of Freedom.
📗 7. Epigraph
An epigraph is a brief quotation, phrase, or poem that sets the theme of the book or novel. One example is the Historical fiction novel The Flight Girls by Noelle Salazar, which opens with a quote by Eleanor Roosevelt that sets the story's era before the first chapter. I usually have a bible verse as an epigraph in my Christian fiction novels that my stories revolve around in some way, as the image below, a quotation from 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 that sets an important theme in my Christian women's fiction novel Eva's Promise.
📗 8. Also by
This page is a short list of the published books and other works by an author outside of the book or novel a reader is currently reading. I’ve included this page in my novel, The Pact of Freedom, introducing other readers to my debut novel, Eva’s Promise.
📗 9. Table of Contents
The table of contents is a list of chapters and other sections within your book, especially for non-fiction references or genre fiction novels.
📗 10. Body Text
This is the main portion of text within your novel or book. For example, the story content of a fiction novel, or sections of information in a non-fiction book. Below is the opening chapter of my Christian Historical fiction novel, The Pact of Freedom.
📗 11. Prologue/Introduction
These pages are the opening or beginning sections of a book or novel, which are used to spark the reader’s interest or to foreshadow what’s later to come within a story or book. Prologues are mostly used within fiction novels, whereas introductions are mostly used within non-fiction books or play books, like "A Raisin in the Sun" by Lorraine Hansberry. I used a prologue in my debut novel, Eva's Promise about my lead characters, Andre and Eva's wedding seven years ago prior to Andre's car accident later in the story.
BACK MATTER:
📙 12. Acknowledgments
The acknowledgments are where authors can show their appreciation for those who helped in the creation of their book, such as editors, book cover designers, or family or friends who encouraged and supported them during their writing process. Being a believer that God is responsible for whatever gift or gifts we have, I always thank Him first before everyone else in my acknowledgments.
📙 13. Author's Note
This page is where authors can discuss the writing process of their book or novel and give a thank you note to their readers. The following image below is a portion from my debut novel, Eva's Promise, where I discuss my views on marriage traditions, issues with divorce rates, the effect of brain injuries, and the beauty of abstinence before marriage, which now unfortunately isn't as appreciated as it used to be in our modern world.
📙 14. Author Bio
The author bio is a short summary about the author's background or family life, how they started writing, where they're from, how they can be contacted, and other things they have interest in besides their writing endeavor. Sometimes it can also be called "About the Author," as I've done here in my debut novel, Eva's Promise.
📙 15. Story or Discussion Questions
These are questions the author creates based on their story content or book information. Many novelists make these who have reading book clubs, or just to give readers something to think about after reading their books. Below are discussion questions I placed in my debut novel, Eva's Promise, as there's a lot of symbolism and important topics in the story.
📙 16. Bibliography
This page is a list of books or other resources the author made reference to within their book. Bibliographies are mostly within non-fiction or textbooks, but they can sometimes be in fiction novels too, as the bibliography in the image below from my copy of the novel, Uncle Tom's Cabin.
📙 17. Glossary
This last section is a word reference similar to a dictionary that lists the meaning of different words used within a novel or book. Perhaps you used foreign languages, urban slang, or have certain exotic animals or plants in an imaginary world from your fantasy novel. All of these types of things would go here.
📣CLOSING REMARKS:
Books are remarkable. Although I only listed seventeen parts, there are many other parts of books or novels, and particularly for the interior format. Nonetheless, whether authors have written a memoir, a non-fiction reference, or a fiction novel, authors or book designers can create books and novels with various colors, typography, and in different shapes, widths, and sizes. All books carry the same essence of mystery when you crack them open; and whether satisfying or not, they all have memorable closures when you finish them and close their back covers. Well, that's it for this post. (If by chance you found it helpful, please give it a (heart❤️) and share your thoughts and comments 💬 below.)
Happy Writing! 😊✍🏽💻
🤔Which the following interior pages have you never used in a book, but would like to someday?
🌎 Glossary
❓Story Questions
🔍Author's Bio
🏆Dedication
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