A Publisher's Conversation with Authors: Yes, There is a Standard, Expected Layout for a Book

 


It is Tuesday. Time to tall turkey. Monday's madness is over, and Wednesday will take us over the hump, so Tuesday it is--for some serious discussion with authors. Tuesday talks mean to address authors in waiting and self-published authors who would like to go a more traditional route or who would at least like to take their steps with a publisher by their side.

Today's topic addresses book structure. Rather than pull in dozens of resources and then generalize them for important takeaways as I usually do in the Tuesday post for authors, I am going to simplify life for all of us and not reinvent the wheel. 

Dave at Kindlepreneur has written an excellent article about the book parts and the expected order for them (yes, you can break the order, IMHO, but do it knowingly and for a reason, not just because your own order feels more comfortable to you). Read his article HERE.

The bottom line is that editors, publishers and readers expert a specific order of book parts. Break with tradition in sequencing your book, and you reap the results of what breaking with any tradition produces. Perhaps you want that result. Perhaps it reinforces a message that the book is beginning. Then, go with it. An editor or publisher, if interested in your book, will let you know whether what you have done is accepted, but do be ready to reorder matters if they matter to the publisher. One author and book comes to mind in talking about breaking the mold: Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, (Of course, Faulkner broke more than just the structural model -- and by the way, so did James Joyce. Two writers of the same heart.) By breaking the mold in this book, Faulkner underscored in visible ways the message he wanted to send. We are not all Faulkners, though, so we need to be careful about when, how, and if we attempt to break the mold (of anything).

Lesson for today's Tuesday talk: Know the standard format. Don't break with the standard simply because you do not know it. That undermines your credibility. Do break the standard, once you know it, if it promotes a message you want to send. Otherwise, conform...it will get you further with publishers and readers.


 Read more posts about publishing HERE.

 (Book available from MSI Press LLC; discount of 25% with coupon code FF25; currently on sale for $5, but that offer will not last long).


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