Foreword vs Preface: Who Writes It, and Which One Your Book Needs

A foreword is written by someone other than you. A preface is written by you, about how the book came to be. That one rule settles most arguments. The two sections people confuse with them are the introduction, which you write about the subject itself, and the prologue, which is part of a novel's story and not front matter at all. Getting these wrong is not a private mistake. The front matter is the first thing a browser sees in Amazon's preview, and a mislabelled or bloated opening reads as amateur before chapter one.

The foreword: someone else, signed

The Chicago Manual of Style, 18th edition, covers the foreword in section 1.45 and defines it as written by someone other than the author. By convention that person signs it. Princeton University Press's manuscript guidelines say the same thing in four words, "conventionally by someone other than author." If you wrote it yourself, it is not a foreword.

A foreword gives the book a second voice: why it matters, and what qualifies the writer to say so. Readers weigh that on the writer's reputation, so ask someone whose name means something to your buyers, such as an established author in your genre or a practitioner in your field. A friend with no standing in the subject adds a page and nothing else.

Keep it short. Greenleaf Book Group tells its authors 500 to 1,000 words, and Chicago's own test is that an introduction by someone else running three to five pages or fewer "may more appropriately be called a foreword." It ends with the writer's name, credentials, place and date. If the name has pull, put "Foreword by" on the cover. That is the main commercial reason to have one.

The preface: you, about the making of the book

Chicago covers the preface in section 1.46 and calls it the author's own statement about the work: why you wrote it, how you researched it, what you left out, and in a later edition, what changed. Acknowledgments can close the preface or take their own page. A preface is usually signed, with place and date under the name.

That definition is also the test for whether you need one. If the draft only summarises the chapters, move it into the introduction. If it mainly tells the reader how much the book will help them, delete it. Readers skip prefaces that read like back-cover copy, and on a novel a preface is almost always padding.

The introduction: you, about the subject

An introduction is written by the author, but it is about the topic, not the writing of the book. It sets up the argument, defines terms and tells the reader how the chapters fit together. Because it is essential to what follows, Chicago treats it as part of the main text, in section 1.53. It carries arabic page numbers, and it is often where page 1 falls. Chicago allows a short introduction that is really background on the book to sit in the front matter, in section 1.48, but if a reader who skipped it would be lost in chapter one, it is text.

The prologue: story, not front matter

A prologue is a scene. It belongs to fiction and narrative nonfiction, it is written in the book's own voice, and it is the first part of the text rather than something placed before it. Chicago's chapter on the parts of a book has no front matter entry for the prologue at all. The common mistake is a novelist writing a note about why they wrote the book and calling it a prologue. That is a preface, and a page of explanation where the story should start is the fastest way to lose a reader in the preview.

The four side by side

The standard order and page numbers

Chicago sets out the full sequence in section 1.4. For a self-published book the parts that usually apply are, in order: half title, title page, copyright page, dedication, epigraph, contents, list of illustrations or tables, foreword, preface, acknowledgments if separate, then an introduction if it belongs in the front matter. Everything after that is text. Princeton's guidelines follow the same order. Most books use four or five of these pages.

Front matter takes lowercase roman numerals, i, ii, iii, and the text starts at arabic 1. Chicago gives the rule in sections 1.7 and 1.8 and the reason in 1.52: numbering the front matter separately means a late dedication does not renumber the whole book. Vellum and Atticus handle this if you mark the sections correctly. In Word you need a section break before chapter one and a separate numbering format on each side of it.

The preview problem

Amazon's Read Sample, still called Look Inside by most people, shows 10 percent of an ebook and 20 percent of a paperback or hardcover, and KDP's help page says the percentage cannot be adjusted. The sample starts at the front of the file, so every page of front matter comes out of that allowance. A two-page foreword costs little. A 4,000-word preface in a 60,000-word ebook uses most of the sample before the story starts, and a browser deciding whether to buy sees your acknowledgments instead of your first chapter.

Keep the front matter to what earns its place, move long acknowledgments to the back, then open your own preview and count the taps to chapter one. The interior mistakes that lose readers in that same preview are in The "Read Sample" Test: 5 Formatting Red Flags That Signal Amateur.

The spelling trap

The word is foreword: fore, meaning before, plus word. Merriam-Webster defines it as prefatory comments, especially when written by someone other than the author. "Forward" is a direction and "foreward" is not a word. Search your manuscript, contents page and Amazon description for both misspellings before you upload. A "Forward by" line on a cover gets screenshotted.

Next steps

Most novels need none of the four, or a prologue that is genuine story. Most nonfiction needs an introduction and, if you have a real reason for writing, a short preface. Ask for a foreword only if the writer's name will sell copies, and give them the manuscript and a word count. Then set the numbering, check the order against the list above, and read your own preview as a stranger would.