Prelim Pages
WritersServices Self-publishing
There is a set order for the pages at the beginning of a book (known in the business as 'prelims') and you will need to send them to us with the rest of the manuscript for the designer to work on. Here we provide detailed instructions for preparing your prelim pages, according to standard publishing practice.
| Your Prelim Pages | |
| Page 1 | (The first right-hand page in a paperback, the first right-hand page after the endpapers in a hardback)
Usually just the title, but you may wish to add some copy, or to repeat the copy on the jacket as the jacket may at some future point become detached from the book. This page can also be used for reviews, or for a short biography of the author. We would advise having just the title, if possible. |
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Page 2 |
Usually this page is used to list the author’s previous books, or left blank. |
| Title page |
A crucial page, which must include the title, the author and the publisher. |
| Title verso or Copyright page |
Another key page, which lists the following:
© ……………………… [author and year of first publication – the copyright line] [This notice is inserted to protect the publisher’s rights.] This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent publisher. The moral right of …………………………. [the author] has been asserted First published in Great Britain…………[year of first publication] by ……………………………[publisher] ISBN ………………………… [WSSP will insert the number] Designed by ………………………… [the designer will insert this] |
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Page 5 |
The dedication page or disclaimer page
………………………… For fiction, we would suggest something along the following lines: This novel is a work of fiction and the characters and events in it exist only in its pages and in the author’s imagination. |
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Page 6 |
Usually left blank |
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Page 7
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For a novel, the main text could start here. For non-fiction titles, this page would generally be used as the Contents page. |
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Page 8 |
This might contain any acknowledgements |
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Page 9 |
List of illustrations (if any) |
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Page 10 |
Usually left blank |
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Page 11 |
Foreword (if any) |
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Page 12 |
Usually left blank |
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Page 13 |
Main text starts |
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Please note that the exact arrangement of pages 7 to 13 will depend on the number of pages to be inserted and on the length of the manuscript. You will have to provide us with these pages with the information detailed above. The designer will then arrange the pages in the most cost-effective and appropriate way to come out with an overall number of pages which will fit with the printer’s working, which requires a multiple of 4. |
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