Education

Co-Author’s Tasks Evaluating Your Book Content And Culling Chapters

My co-author and I started our book several months ago. Half of the manuscript is done and we have another half to go. At least, that was our thinking before some colleagues read the contents page. Suddenly, we found ourselves going backwards.
Every Monday, my co-author and I meet to evaluate our progress, edit chapters, and assign homework. Our last meeting turned out differently than we expected. “I’ve showed the book to some of my colleagues,” my co-author said, “and they think it may be too long.”
Afraid the second page would be a turn-off, we discussed the logic flow of the chapters. We checked the clarity, too. Both of us thought the logic flow was good, but I was still concerned. “When I write a book, I never have more than nine chapters,” I explained. “I think of the conclusion as the 10th one.” Our book has 17 chapters and we decided that was too many.
The Dog Ear Publishing website has posted an article about contents pages titled, “What are the Various Book Elements?” It defines the second page as a “road-map for your reader.” Though our map was clear, when the book is typeset the contents may become two pages. We decided to eliminate one chapter and combine two others. As work progresses, we may be able to combine two more chapters.
Since I have a graduate degree in art and am in charge of formatting the manuscript for submission, I want the contents page to be appealing. Potential buyers should be able to scan it in a few seconds and see the structure of the book. Past experience had taught me that would-be buyers make a decision in less than a minute. In short, the contents page can make or break a sale.
I searched the Internet for articles about formatting manuscripts. According to one, “Table of Contents: Creative Examples,” by Vitaly Friedman and posted on the Smashing Magazine website, this page should be visually appealing. Friedman thinks of it as an “opportunity for unique design.” With this idea in mind, I changed the chapter and heading fonts and added small dotted lines beneath these headings for emphasis. The lines would also keep the reader’s eyes moving from left to right and, hopefully, all through the book.
Linda Owens examines book structure in her Tech-Nology website article, “Using the Parts of a Book.” Readers should be able to scan a book and see its parts, Owens notes. I think of the contents page as the skeleton of a book and, thanks to the changes we made, our skeleton is clearer.
Our book is shaping up well. We’re proud of our chapter titles, which are short and clear, just what readers need. When we have completed the manuscript, we’ll show the contents page to other colleagues and get their reaction. The reaction we’re looking for: “I’m going to buy this book!”

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