Editor's Toolkit: Preface, Foreword, or Introduction

Editor’s Toolkit: Preface, Foreword, or Introduction

Editor's Toolkit

By Susana Christie, Senior Developmental Editor

Preface, Foreword, or Introduction: What's the (Front) Matter?

Authors often ask about the differences between a preface, a foreword, and an introduction. Some books don’t include any of these. Others may have all three.

Cognella typically recommends having a preface and an introduction. These don’t need to be long. While authors are free to write as much as they wish, often all the important points can be covered in just a page or two. Any author who also wants to include a foreword can do so.

Please note that as the Chicago Manual of Style is our in-house guide, the information here is based on CMS protocols. Should your book follow a different style, such as APA, please ask your editor to clarify any differences.

The Preface

The preface is the place where the author explains the origins of the book, as well as its general purpose and scope. Written for an audience of peers, the preface is the author’s opportunity to explain why the book has academic merit.

To develop content for the preface to your book, reflect on and respond to the questions below.

How and when did you decide to write the book? (If there are multiple authors, this answer may have two parts. The first will discuss how the idea came to be, and the second will explain how you all began to work on it together.
What is the scope of the book? What are the issues it covers? (This is not a detailed description of the content. Rather, it’s a description of the general topics and/or issues.)
Is the book written from a particular perspective?
Does the book advocate a particular approach?
How does this book differ from other books that cover the same or similar content?

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Editor’s Toolkit: Preface, Foreword, or Introduction

The Preface

Resources