Front Matter is one of the last sections of a book manuscript for an author to complete. But it’s the first thing a reader sees. Before page 1, there are several items that appear in the front pages of any book. Some pages are mandatory: title, copyright, and table of contents. Others are optional. Every page before the first one in Chapter 1 is paginated using lower case roman numerals beginning with the Title Page is i. Except for the Copyright Page, all sections of the front matter begin on a recto page. Verso pages are those on the left hand side of an open book; recto pages are on the right. In the body of the book manuscript, every new chapter begins on a recto page. This means if your chapter ends on an odd-numbered page, you will have one blank page between the end of the chapter and the start of the next one. Because printed books are bound together in signatures – 32 pages constitutes a signature – the total number of book pages is always divisible by eight. This is why you often find blank pages or additional front matter at the beginning or end of a book. Title Page – [required] The title and author’s name appear centered on the page. This is always the first printed page. Copyright Page – [required] This page contains copyright information (title, subtitle, author, publisher, date of publication, subject headings, Library of Congress and/or Dewey decimal designation, ISBN number, and Library…

Do we need quotation marks? Who needs punctuation? Times are a-changing. One of the signs punctuation marks are in flux is the air quotations people make with their fingers when using words ironically. In print, we’ve seen the rise of single quotation marks around sarcastic words or phrases, even though the standard rule for single quotation marks are for use inside double quotation marks to indicate someone speaking is quoting someone else. Another sign of the changing times is the omission of periods at the end of text messages. Where did all the Oxford commas go? I notice the subtitles on my TV rarely have punctuation and never use quotes. Poets and playwrights are notorious for their disregard of style rules regarding punctuation, especially quotation marks. With instant messaging, even letters are omitted, words shortened: r u, lol, rotfl, omg. Historically, quotation marks were one of the last types of punctuation to appear, according to David Crystal in his book, Making a Point: The Persnickety Story of English Punctuation (St. Martin’s Press, 2015). In the beginning of the written word, the only spaces between letters came when space ran out at the end of the line. Written words were used to record information, not to be read aloud. Religious and philosophic communities were the first to want stable texts that could be read, and read in a particular way that would indicate authority and knowledge. Spaces appeared between words, often to indicate reading cadence, breathing and tonal guidelines. Punctuation was…

If you seek traditional publication for your book manuscript, then it is incumbent upon you to obtain copyright permissions for any text or images which are not original. The book will not go to print until every written permission has been secured. Because publishing is a for-profit venture, an author cannot include the copyrighted work of others without permission and it is not covered under the “Fair Use” provisions given to non-profits under the U.S. Copyright Law. Using a two or three sentence quote and providing proper attribution to the published source does not require copyright permission. If, however, you use two or three lines from a poem then you must get written authorization to include the words. More than a paragraph or two from a scholarly text, or an instrument or diagram or table or whatever it is you want to include, be sure you check copyright. To find out who the copyright holder of a piece of textual intellectual property, look to the original source of publication. Find the publisher and go their website and search for their site for Copyright Permissions. For example, if the quote you want to use comes from a book published by Penguin Random House, you would enter the search terms “copyright permissions Penguin Random House” to find the link to permissions.penguinrandomhouse.com. Most major publishers have online request forms. If there is no online request form, ask your publisher if they have a form letter to submit to gain copyright permissions. If they…