Sunday, January 19, 2020
Blog #11 of my learning from #TheChicagoManualOfStyle.
Have you ever paid attention to the layout of a book? How’s it different if it’s cloth bound or paperback or an eBook? Well, there are strict differences. To find out, read on.
Parts of a Book
- Front Matter — the pages you skip before you get to the story, the reason you picked the book.
- Text — the story contained in the book
- Back Matter — Everything that follows.
I find myself now more than ever, paying attention to the front and back matter. Not because someday my books will need them too, but when I read good fiction, I find myself digging for more–who wrote such beautiful words, how did they manage, yada, yada, yada.
Definitions
It’s time we get a few terms out of the way.
LEAF – two sides/pages make a leaf of a book. (Leafing through a book . . .)
RECTO – The odd numbered page we stare at when we open the book.
VERSO – The even numbered page, on the back side.
ROMAN NUMBERS – i, ii, iii, iv, v, vi, vii, viii . . .
ARABIC NUMBERS – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 . . .
FOLIO – page number on a page.
DROP FOLIO – when page number is omitted on a certain page (we’ll learn when).
The Front Matter
The pages before the story starts, following a strict order, numbered using lowercase roman numbers (prevents renumbering the book if pages are added to or removed from the front matter). First (i) is always the Book Half Title. A half title is only the name of the book, nothing else. Second (ii) Series title, etc. Third (iii) Title page. This contains the title, author name, and publisher’s name. Fourth (iv) is the copyright page, which as the name suggests contains the copyright information, reprint information, ISBN for all types of prints–yes, you have to buy ISBN for all platforms. It also contains paper durability requirements’ proof. Yes, paper must adhere to standards in place for durability reasons. There’s another number called DOI which is an international unique ID. Dedication and Epigraphs will appear on page v and vi. List of contents and illustrations are vii and viii and can appear recto or verso. Forword, appears recto, is not the same as prologue or preface and is words written by someone other than the author. In the book When Breath Becomes Air, forword for Paul Kalanithi is given by Adam Varghese, where he reflects he came to know the author only after his death (It’s a lovely read). Preface are reflections of the author herself and follows the forword, appearing recto too. Other segments (all optional) are acknowledgements, introductions, abbreviations, and chronology–all appear recto with exception of abbreviation that can start on any page (recto or verso) of a leaf.
One section of the front matter is Cataloging-in-Publication (CIP). I learned here that if you are traditional publishing, you apply with the Library of Congress (if your publisher is registered with them) in order to make the book available in libraries. You cannot register with this library if self-publishing, however. You may check with another organization called Preassigned Control Number (PCN) program (for US publishers not registered with the Library of Congress and self-publishers). A book must meet the requirement in order to see the light of libraries.
Page Numbers
Page numbers or folio are commonly found at the top of the page, aligned (flushed) left on verso and flushed right recto. Folio can be located at the bottom as well, and when it does, it’s called a drop folio that can be centered or flushed left verso or flushed right recto.
Title page, half title, copyright, dedication, and epigraph pages of front matter contain no folio. Whereas, Opening page of each succeeding section of the front matter (e.g., table of contents, forword, preface) contain a drop folio (at the bottom of the page).
Text
The text (main part of the book) is numbered with Arabic numbers, starting with 1, no matter how many pages exist in the front matter. If the text starts with another title, that page is numbered 1.
All opening pages of chapters and blank pages contain no folio or drop folio. The half title of the chapter is placed recto and a blank page on its verso.
Some books are broken into parts and chapters. Each part starts recto followed by blank verso and chapter title recto.
Each chapter starts on a new page, verso or recto and its opening page should be drop folio. But the first chapter begins recto, usually. Chapter opening should consist of chapter number, title, and subtitle (if any).
Subhead, a secondary heading, appears underneath the main heading, title and must be able to standalone instead of refering to the title.
Scene breaks contain set of asterisks or a blank line. The disadvantage of a blank line is when it appears at the bottom or start of a page, it isn’t visible. A recent book I read called The Bollywood Affair by Sonali Dev and There There by Tommy Orange both used blank space for scene breaks (where time lapsed or pov changed) but when the break appeared at page end or page start, they used three dots.
Back Matter
Arabic numbering continues in the back matter. Back Matter contains acknowledgements and appendix (if not in the front matter), glossary, notes, bibliography or references, contributions, illustrations, indexed, and about the author (if not in the cover or jacket of cloth bindings). All are recto except for subsequent appendixes that can appear recto or verso. Some parts of back matter I was completely unfamiliar with are: Colophon which is last page of specially designed book that contains inscription regarding the facts of production; Errata – severe errors in the text are noted in this section. So, instead of correcting and reprinting, these errors are simply listed here.
Covers and Jackets
Clothbound covers – The Chicago Manual of Style is clothbound hardcover–stretched over cardboard cover and it includes a paper dust jacket–a cover over the clothbound. The spine inside the jacket has the author name, title, and edition, and the publisher name (shortened).
Paperback covers – paperbacks carry promotional items like description of book, quotations of reviews, etc. on the back. The same information is placed in the jacket of hard cover or clothbound books.
Endpapers – Two folded sheets around the bound book so the pages are held together securely. Look closely, all books have these around its leafs, and these could be plain or carry a design.
Metadata, Abstracts, and Keywords
Metadata consists of set of core elements that can be used to describe a book like title, subtitle, publisher, biography. ISBN, price, bar code, and description of book content.
Abstracts and Keywords – Authors are required to write abstracts for their books to be used for marketing including back cover of paperbacks, etc. Abstracts may be supplemented by keywords. A keyword is a word or phrase that identifies a key concept or name in the book.
Parts of a Journal are outside the scope of this blog because of similarities in the content. I’ll be using TCMOS for it if I ever need it.
Electronic Formats
XML and other markup languages exist so your book can be translated from platform to platform. Some notable features of eBooks that are available to users is ability to search on keywords, sometimes insert hyperlinks etc. Lets glance at various platforms available in the electronic format.
PDF (Portable Document Format) – This presents your book in the same look-and-feel as it would if it were printed-and-bound. It’s a great format for beta reading and editing because it allows ability to search and add comments.
E-book formats – PDFs can be used as a basis for eBooks, but EPUB and a number of similar formats tailor to the eBook software.
HTML – Works great in web browsers
Apps – App-compatible version of the book.
Other things I learned about electronic format: Front matter is preserved in electronic format; Printed books have fixed page numbers, eBooks don’t because page numbers vary based on viewer. For instance, a user can change the typeface and font that will impact page numbers making them variable; Finally, electronic versions allow hyperlinks while adding citations.
My Takeaway
I enjoyed this chapter and didn’t find it basic. I realized we overlook so many things in the books we read, not knowing the strict system they consistently follow.
Next week, I will hop to chapter 11 on foreign languages which is quite relevant to some of my books.
Source: The Chicago Manual of Style, SEVENTEEN EDITION.
One reply on “TCMOS – BOOKS – Chapter 1”
I freely admit I have gotten very lazy about this bc I depend on Scrivener to take care of all the layout stuff for me. It’s doing a good job as far as I can tell.