Glossaries, appendices and other back matter
Back matter is reference material, and reference material is used rather than read. That changes how it is set. A reader arrives at a glossary because they have stopped, mid-scene, not knowing what a word means, and they want to be back in the book in ten seconds.
The back of the book is where your next sale is covers the commercial pages — the bio, the also-by list, the review ask. This is about the rest: the material that serves the book itself.
The order
Not every book needs every one of these, but when they appear, this is the sequence readers expect:
- Appendices — supporting material referred to from the text.
- Notes — if you are using endnotes rather than footnotes. See Footnotes, endnotes and the reader's patience.
- Glossary — terms and definitions.
- Bibliography or further reading.
- Index — always last, because it is built against the composed page numbers. Does your nonfiction book need an index? has the argument for and against.
- Acknowledgments, then about the author.
The rule behind the order: material that belongs to the book comes before material that belongs to you.
A glossary is a fantasy and nonfiction workhorse
Two kinds of book earn one. Invented-world fiction, where a reader is tracking houses, ranks, coinage and six similar names. And any book whose difficulty is vocabulary — technical, medical, legal, historical, or a subject with terms of art the reader has met but never had defined.
How to set one:
- Alphabetical. Not order of appearance, not grouped by theme. A reader comes with one word and needs to find it without reading the others.
- Term in bold or small caps, definition following on the same line. Bold is the safer default; small caps look better but need real small caps rather than shrunken capitals, which is a separate decision — see Ligatures, kerning and small caps.
- Hanging indent. The term sits flush left and the definition's turnover lines indent under it, so the terms form a clean column down the left edge that the eye can run. This is the single setting that makes a glossary scannable, and the one most often skipped.
- Short. One or two sentences. A glossary entry that becomes an essay is an appendix that has wandered into the wrong section.
Define the word, do not gloss the plot.
The fantasy glossary that spoils the book
This is the trap, and it is easy to fall into because you write the glossary last, when you know everything.
A reader who looks up a term on page 40 must not learn what happens on page 400. "The ceremonial blade of the northern houses, used by Aren to kill his brother" has just ended your book for someone who was enjoying it. The convention is narrow and worth holding to: say what the invented thing is, in the terms the book has already established by the time it first appears, and stop.
The same discipline applies to a cast list, a timeline and a family tree. Each of them can give away a death, a parentage or an alliance in a single line. If you keep one, The series bible, and what it saves you is not the glossary — the bible knows everything, the glossary knows only what the reader is allowed to.
Appendices
An appendix holds material the argument depends on but the prose should not carry: a data table, a full text of something quoted in part, a method, a worked example, a set of forms.
- Number or letter them, and start each on a new page — a recto in a longer book. See Blank pages, recto and verso, and why the count is even.
- Title them by what they contain. "Appendix B: The 1974 Correspondence", not "Appendix B" alone. A reader flicking to the back needs to know which one they want, and so does your contents page.
- Refer to them from the text at the point where they matter. An appendix nobody is sent to is an appendix nobody opens.
- Keep tables and charts to the shape of the page. Tables, charts and data in a printed book covers what happens when they do not.
In the Interior Formatter. Front and back matter are built from fields rather than typed into the manuscript, so adding an author bio, an also-by list or an acknowledgments page is a setting — and the page count that results flows straight to the Cover Maker. Start your interior → · about the Interior Formatter
Set it a point smaller
Back matter is conventionally set a point below the body, with the leading tightened to match. If the body is 11 pt on 15.5, a glossary at 10 on 14 still reads comfortably, looks deliberate, and signals to the reader that they have left the book proper.
On a long reference section that is a genuine saving: set a point down, it comes back several pages shorter, and page count is spine width — so it shows up on the cover too. Type size, leading and the line that reads well explains what the tightened leading is doing.
Do not take it further than a point. Two points down is small print, and back matter is exactly where an older reader is squinting at an unfamiliar word.
Do not set a glossary in two columns
Columns are the obvious idea and usually the wrong one. A glossary is short lines of justified text, and a narrow column is where justification fails: too few words per line, so the spaces stretch to fill, and you get the gaping gaps and vertical rivers that make a page look amateur. Justification, hyphenation, and the gaps between words explains the mechanism.
A 6 × 9 page does not carry two columns of running text. A 7 × 10 or 8.5 × 11 reference book might. If you are not sure, set one column with a hanging indent and it will look better than two columns ever would.
Typeset your book
The Interior Formatter is free to use: name your book, bring your manuscript, and it sets real pages you can read before you commit to anything. You only pay when you want the files without the preview watermark.
Next: The back of the book is where your next sale is · Also in this guide: What goes in the front of a book, and in what order · Does your nonfiction book need an index? · Does your book need a table of contents?