“The End” or “El Fini” is not always the last page in a novel anymore. Granted it ends the storyline but you may find additional pages before the back cover. Such as About the Author information, maybe Acknowledgments even the first pages of the author’s next book. There could be an order page or advertising for other books the author has written. These pages are considered back matter.
People are accustomed to seeing six to twenty pages of back matter with a non-fiction book. This may include:
- Appendix
- Endnotes
- Glossary
- Bibliography
- About the Author
- Index
A single book does not need all of these included. It will depend on you, as the author, to decide how much and what kinds of back matter to include.
Typically back matter is designed in a smaller font size than the main body of a book. This helps minimize the room the research matter takes up, however, these pages must be included in the total page count.
Why do some books have blank pages at the back of the book? When printing offset for a large production of books, the text is run in signatures. A signature can be a sheet containing sixteen or thirty-two pages of the book. If the end text runs out at page twelve of a sixteen-page signature, the last four pages will be blank.
Whether you’ve written a trilogy for young adults or a new revelation in building self-esteem, you’ll need to decide how much back matter your book needs for your audience.
