Children's Books and Back Matter | Writing for Children with Karen Cioffi

Are you thinking of writing a children’s book? Or, maybe you’ve written one already.

The majority of my clients hire me for picture books, although I’m getting more and more chapter and simple middle grade clients now. As authors having a book to be published, it’s important to know a bit about what should go in the back of a children’s book. It’s also good for others getting their feet wet in the children’s book arena to know about these things.

Keep in mind that this may vary, depending on the purpose of your book and the topic. And if you have a picture book, it depends if you want any information at the back or if you’d prefer having more pages for story and illustrations.

Note: If you’re traditionally publishing, the publishing house will make decisions or help you make decisions about your back matter.

Below are 7 pages you might consider for your book’s back matter, if space allows and the story warrants it.

1. About the Author

This is a page that most authors want in their book. It’s the page where the author can let the reader know a bit about him or her. And, it might be the page you use, if you’re a professional, to show your credentials for writing the book.

This is an important element if say you’re in the healthcare profession. You’ll want the reader to know that you are qualified to give the information in the book.

This page can go be used in any children’s genre you’re writing in, including a picture book.

2. Afterword / Author Notes

On this page, you’ll be able to explain why you wrote the book, how you came up with the idea, and/or what inspired you to write it.

If you have a picture book and have the room on the Author page, add the Afterword there. Every page counts in picture books.

This is another page that’s appropriate for any genre, if page count allows.

3. Additional Information

Depending on the topic of your book, you may want to offer additional information that is fact based.

For example, I’ve worked with a number of mental health professionals and they usually want to give the reader, parent, or other mental health professional helpful tips relating to the topic of the story.

Or, it could be you’ve written a wonderful fiction story about a dinosaur and want to give some facts about dinosaurs in the back of the book.

Another example is a three-book fiction picture book series I have, The Adventures of Planetman. The books are about protecting our environment. The back of these books each have fact-based information that shows children how they can be a superhero for our planet.

Whatever the reason or purpose for additional information, you need to be sure you have the room for it. Standard picture books usually don’t.

Additional information pages are an excellent idea for chapter books and middle grade books.

An example of this is my middle grade fantasy set in ancient China, “Walking Through Walls.” I provided the reader with information on the Ming Dynasty period and also interesting information on Chinese dragons as a dragon was mentioned in the story.

This type of information allows the reader to become more involved with the story. It also gives the parent and teacher more room for conversation with the young reader. And, if you need to add more pages to your book, it’s the perfect filler.

4. Reading Comprehension

Most standard children’s picture books don’t include a reading comprehension page(s). They just don’t have the space.

But if you’re writing a chapter or middle grade book and would like to boost its chances of being picked up for school classrooms and libraries, then definitely include this in your book’s back matter.

Reading comprehension pages help children understand what they just read. These pages ask questions that make the child think about the story and how it can relate to them.

5. Activities

To further engage the young reader and teacher, you can offer activities related to the story.

In “Walking Through Walls,” one of the activities was for the reader to draw a picture of a dragon.

Most picture books don’t include an activities page. Again, there’s not enough room.

6. Glossary

Depending on the topic of your chapter book or middle grade book, you may want to or even need to include a glossary in the back matter of your book.

The glossary lists words that the child may not be familiar with and gives the definition.

Glossaries are most often used in nonfiction children’s books rather than fiction ones. Although I can see its purpose if you’re writing a fantasy world and created words specific to that world. A glossary would come in handy.

7. Promotional Page

This page is a must for every book although the picture book may not have room for it. But if at all possible, include this page if you have other genre related books.

You can include excerpts of forthcoming titles and/or titles already available for sale. You can also include a call-to-action (CTA) to sign up for your newsletter or to visit your website.

As an author, you also need to be a book marketer. You need to take every advantage you can to promote your books. And, what better place to sell your other books than to a person reading one of your books.

There are also pages such as an Index, an Appendix, a Resource List, and a Bibliography, but again it depends on the type of book you’re writing and the topic. These pages would not pertain to a picture book.

A Word About Picture Books

The industry standard picture book is 32 pages. There are though also 24 pages, 40 pages, and 48 pages. There are even picture books that are 64 pages. I’ve seen these in children’s fiction and nonfiction self-help books.

The reason 32 pages is the standard is because it’s the best number for cost-effective printing. And, it creates a neatly bound book. It just works out all around to be the best fit physically.

Why I mention this is because while you think you have 32 pages, you really don’t.

The first page (Page 1) and the last page (Page 32) are used to glue the front and back book covers onto the book.

This brings you down to 30 usable pages.

Well, not quite.

Figure on at least another 4 pages for front matter and back matter. This brings you to 26 pages of text and illustrations – 13 spreads.

A spread is the left page and right page when you have the book open.

If you forego the back matter, and keep all your front matter on two pages, you may have 28 pages for story and illustrations.

But, another factor to consider if you’re self-publishing is that the publishing service may have their own formatting requirements.

I’m working with a series client who was told by the publishing service that she couldn’t use Pages 1, 2, 31, or 32. That left her with only 28 pages for front matter, the body of the book (the actual pages for story and illustrations), and the back matter.

This became a big problem as I wrote the story thinking we had 26-pages and the client has two pages of back matter.

Keep in mind that if you’re a professional, such as in healthcare, and want to include additional information on the story topic, you’ll need more pages. I would strongly recommend a 48-page picture book if this is the case. You wouldn’t want to short-change the story or illustrations for lack of space.

Whether you need rewriting or ghostwriting, let me take a look at your story. Just send me an email at: kcioffiventrice@gmail.com. Please put “Children’s Writing” in the Subject box.