Is having a TOC in a book a must?
By Lena Kovadlo
@lovebuglena (47951)
Staten Island, New York
November 26, 2016 1:07pm CST
I am formatting a manuscript for someone and because the book (a collection of limericks) has a lot of poems in it the table of contents is almost thirty pages long. I have placed the TOC in the back of the book instead of in the front (not a common thing to do) because it is just way too long to have in the front and readers will have a lot of page flipping to do before they get to the first poem...
I know that usually books that are collections of poetry, short stories, etc. do have one, and it's good to have if readers want to go back to a specific piece, but that many pages of TOC is crazy. Is it is a must to have a TOC in the book? Can I get rid of the TOC altogether?
2 people like this
4 responses
@porwest (109314)
• United States
14 Oct
Having the TOC in the back of the book seems rather weird for a poetry collection, or a collection of any kind. When people read poetry or short story collections, they tend to want to revert back, and the TOC is where they find exactly what they are looking for.
I guess at the end of the day it doesn't matter. But I do think it at least needs to be there for any collection.
@lovebuglena (47951)
• Staten Island, New York
14 Oct
I have seen books with what they call an index rather than a table of contents and it’s usually in the back of the book. I think a poetry collection, whether the poems have a title or not, should have a table of contents. The problem is when you have way too many poems that means the table of contents is too long, which is not a good thing. Especially because that increases the page count of the book, which means it costs more to make it, and therefore results in a higher retail price.
1 person likes this
@lovebuglena (47951)
• Staten Island, New York
15 Oct
@porwest you’re probably correct. I’d have to look that up lol.
1 person likes this
@porwest (109314)
• United States
15 Oct
@lovebuglena To me an index is different than a table of contents. An index points to direct points of text while a table of contents points to an entire point of text.
1 person likes this
@lovebuglena (47951)
• Staten Island, New York
1 Dec 16
It's a good suggestion but I am not sure if they can be grouped together... Will have to ask the poet...
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@Jackalyn (7558)
• Oxford, England
27 Nov 16
I am not sure. You could make sections? Then have the sections as the TOC. In an ebook it is fine to take TOC to the back as you want as little front matter as possible. If I was formatting a print book like that I would have a larger section heading and smaller print for the poems 30 pages is too long though so maybe do just the sections.
If it is self publishing you automatically get TOC with some publishers. That could be a problem. Paper books they print what you give them
