Consider including Back Matter in Your Book

Photo from the back matter in
Waddles the Duck: Hey, Wait for Me, taken
when a family of mallard ducks took up
residence in our family pool

By Linda Wilson  @LinWilsonauthor

You’ve done your research and put your heart and soul into your book. When it’s done, does your file still bulge at the seams? You can elaborate on the main content by including a section of back matter. Some back matter topics include acknowledgements, appendices, glossaries, bibliographies, suggested reading, and author notes. As a self-published author, I include Meet the Author, Meet the Illustrator, blurbs of my additional books with photos of the covers, and supplementary material with sources, for more information.

Examples of Popular Children's Books that incorporate Back Matter 

• The Very Hungry Caterpillar, by Eric Carle: Back matter often includes facts about the butterfly life cycle and other interesting details.
•  The Tale of Peter Rabbit, by Beatrix Potter: A glossary of terms, information about rabbits, and an explanation about the illustrations are often included in back matter.
• Anne of Green Gables, by Montgomery: Back matter often includes information about the author's life, the historical period, and a discussion of the story's themes.

Combine Research with Helpful Suggestions

In the four picture books that I’ve self-published, two offered in English and Spanish, three of them contain back matter with information from my research and suggestions for my readers.

• Tall Boots, illustrated by 1000 Storybooks:

Ashley wants to win a blue ribbon at the 4-H Horse Show—but there’s one problem. She has to wear her old red rubber riding boots. Her mother is willing to invest in knee-high riding boots, but first Ashley needs to prove to her that she’s committed to riding.

Back Matter: I wanted to see if the 4-H organization would endorse use of the 4-H logo and information about how to join. The national organization has certain requirements, which I followed. As a result, after the last page of the story, the back matter begins with a paragraph titled, “How you can Join 4-H,” followed by, “What you need to get started.”

• Waddles the Duck: Hey, Wait for Me! illustrated by Nancy Batra:

Waddles the duck peeked out of his shell. His brothers and sisters were already following their mama across the grass to their neighbor’s pool. Last to reach the water, last to find food, last to find safety at the nearby pond, Waddles hurried to catch up. Hey, wait for me!

Back Matter: The story of Waddles the Duck is based on a family of mallard ducks that came to live in our pool when my family lived in Ohio. Included after the last page are three cameo shots I took of the ducks at the time: the first when we found them swimming in our pool one morning, the second when nine baby ducks stood on the top run of our ladder, and the third when we led them back to the pond, with the mother duck with her babies following behind her. I tell readers that we think the mother duck came to our backyard so that she could lay her eggs in a quieter place than the pond. Next is a section titled, “Meet the Mallards,” which offers information about mallard ducks. Here’s where I went all out. I included an explanation of the natural types of food people can buy to feed waterfowl, such as waterfowl pellets, which can be purchased at Tractor Supply Co., Walmart, or pet stores. Also fun is for readers to collect tadpoles and frogs, salamanders, worms, and snails to feed waterfowl. A list of sources is included.

• A Packrat’s Holiday: Thistletoe’s Gift, illustrated by Nancy Batra

On this cold winter's holiday eve, Thistletoe Q. Packrat sat in the parlor, his chin in his paws. The cupboards were bare. Poor Mama. There would be no holiday feast this year.

Back Matter: I first learned about packrats on a white-water rafting trip I took with my family at the Grand Canyon. At night we slept in sleeping bags under the stars. There were no insects to bother us—it was too dry. But there were tiny footprints scattered in the dirt all over our camp. Our tour guide told us packrats had scoured our camp for any leftover food and also shiny objects to take back to their den. I was fascinated. When I returned home, I researched packrats and created the story. The back matter includes a section, “What are Packrats Really Like?” and a glossary of American Southwest topics shown in the story, including the words to the song “Home on the Range,” with sources cited.

• Cradle in the Wild, illustrated by 1000 Storybooks:

Kaylee and her little sister Madison find a bird nest on their front porch. It had fallen from its place nestled against the porch light. The birds have lost their home, unless . . . the sisters can come up with a way to help them build a new nest. But how?

Back Matter: This book contains only blurbs for readers to learn about my other books. 

Sources: https://guide.pressboards.com/chapter/create-and-edit-back-matter

                A Google search for back matter in popular children's books

Last weekend I sold books at
a spring fair in Los Lunas,
a rural town in New Mexico. 
One of the perks was to 
pet a couple's farm animals.

Linda Wilson is the author of the Abi Wunder Mystery series and other books for children. Her two new releases are the Spanish versions of Tall Boots, Botas Altas (2024), translated by Graciela Moreno and Adriana Botero, and Cradle in the Wild, Cuna en la Naturaleza (2025), translated by Adriana Botero. You'll find Linda on her Amazon author page, on her website at LindaWilsonAuthor.com, and on Facebook.

Children's Books and Back Matter

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 that will be published, it’s important  to know a bit about what should go in the back of your book.

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 whether you want any information at the back or if you’d prefer having more pages for story and illustrations.

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 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 super-hero 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 for sale.

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 in many cases.

This brings you down to 30 usable pages.

Well, not quite.

Figure on a minimum of 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 for content and illustrations, along with the client's back matter. My client ended up having to go with a 40-page book for the series.

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 40-page or 48-page picture book if this is the case. You wouldn’t want to short-change the story or illustrations for lack of space.

This article was originally published at:
http://karencioffiwritingforchildren.com/2018/09/23/childrens-books-and-back-matter/

You might also like last month's post about your book's front matter:
 Before the Story Begins - The Front Matter

About the Author

Karen Cioffi is an award-winning children's author and a working children’s ghostwriter as well as the founder and editor-in-chief of Writers on the Move. You can find out more about writing for children and her services at: Karen Cioffi Writing for Children. Check out the DIY Page!

And, check out Karen's new picture book: The Case of the Plastic Rings – The Adventures of Planetman.





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