Today I want to talk about back matter, because it seems that far too many self-published authors don’t know and understand how super-critically important it is.
So what is back matter?
Simply put, it’s the stuff that comes *after* the main body of the book. Stuff like About the Author and lists of other published books, and links to places where people can contact you.
Why is it so important?
Because when a reader gets to the end of the book, they have just invested hours in your work. If they get to the end, chances are they’ve enjoyed it, and this is the ultimate best time to hit them with a “here is the next book I’d like you to read”. You do this immediately after the last sentence. Put a scene break and then add something about what you want them to do. Do not put this in separate chapter.
YES. Amazon also does this. NO, not all retailers do this and also YES, they will actually recommend OTHER AUTHORS’ books to your readers.
Do not let retailers handle this for you.
DO. NOT. HAND. THIS. TASK. TO. AMAZON. Because I can guarantee you they will bend it to suit themselves, *especially* if you’re not setting the charts on fire, because they WILL recommend some bestseller instead of your other books. *Especially* if those books are not properly labelled as a series.
OK, so what to do?
Think about this: if a reader has finished a particular book, what do you want them to do? ONE thing, not two or three. You get ONE suggestion.
This may change over time.
If you’re new and you don’t have a series (yet), you might want them to sign up for your mailing list. Otherwise, the next thing should always be to recommend the next book in the series, or the next series, or the most closely related other book you’ve published.
What link to put?
It gets tricky here, because people read books on different devices, and not all of them are fully capable web browsers. Older devices and super-proprietary devices (insert whisper that sounds like “Kindle”) may not connect to a website. Result: you’ve lost a reader.
If you want people to sign up to your mailing list, you have to send them to your website. DO NOT use the URL of the mailing list service’s signup form. Copy & paste that form onto a page onto your website. PLEASE. That way you’re not further complicating things when you want to change service or it goes belly-up. But yes, those website links may not work (on Kindles, mainly). So make sure you also spell out the URL of your website. Not ideal, but can’t be helped.
If you want the reader to buy book 2 in the series, it’s best to add a store-specific link. Again you can use a website, but you’ll lose many of the Kindle readers. Similar with Books2Read links or Bookfunnel links pages. They are websites. Kindles will not connect to them. Add an Amazon link in the back instead.
But what if your books are wide? Because retailers hate *other* retailer links in their books.
Do you really have to make separate files and upload them separately? Actually, yes, you do. If you use Vellum, it makes these files for you, so that’s very easy. Take it even further and make your complete bio store-specific. Save the files as templates on Vellum and they update automatically each time when you export the file.
Having a website link is a close second best, but I’ve discovered recently the meaning of “second” because it really is second-best.
But also…
Make sure you use the series pages that retailers offer. Many do this automatically providing you spell the series name the same for each book (CHECK THIS). Amazon now allows you to manually changes these pages and add related material such as collections. Google Play offers the option to discount the books if a reader buys the whole series (or at least a number of books that you can specify). USE THIS.
This kind of stuff is boring and tedious, but it can make so much difference in how many people will continue to read your next books.
P.S. You can find all this and more in Enjoy Self-publishing, which is my attempt at spreading common sense to beginning authors in an easily digestible format (ebook, audio, paperback and hardcover)
