{"id":12435,"date":"2022-01-18t13:37:04","date_gmt":"2022-01-18t19:37:04","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.ad2buzz.com\/?p=12435"},"modified":"2022-11-11t07:04:26","modified_gmt":"2022-11-11t13:04:26","slug":"does-your-novel-need-a-table-of-contents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.ad2buzz.com\/2022\/01\/18\/does-your-novel-need-a-table-of-contents\/","title":{"rendered":"does your novel need a table of contents?"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n
from our own reading, most of us know that some paperback and hardcover novels have a table of contents page\u00a0in the front and some don\u2019t. lurking online, i perceive a widespread notion that tables of contents are old-fashioned and pointless for fiction. there\u2019s also fear that a contents page wastes valuable marketing space in online \u201csee inside\u201d previews, preventing readers from getting to the good stuff that will tempt them to buy.<\/p>\n
why then do some best-selling, award-winning novels have a table of contents, sometimes several pages long? as\u00a0you\u2019ll see, sometimes it makes sense.<\/p>\n
tables of contents for printed nonfiction<\/em> books are traditional for obvious reasons. readers of a guide to wildflowers or a history of angola can consult the toc both for a concise overview of the entire book and to locate specific information. reviewers and scholars may use the contents to find their way back to passages they want to quote or cite. cmos<\/em> 1.38<\/a> lays out the conventions for compiling and placing a contents page.<\/p>\n novels, however, aren\u2019t reference books. cmos<\/em> 1.38 skirts the issue of tocs for novels, but it does note that \u201ca table of contents may be omitted for books without chapter or other divisions.\u201d let\u2019s take that as permission to omit the toc from any book where it\u2019s unhelpful.<\/p>\n indeed, in hardcover and paperback novels a table of contents is of limited value compared to a toc for nonfiction, especially when a book has only chapter numbers, not titles.<\/p>\n but before we declare the toc irrelevant to printed novels, let\u2019s take a closer look at why some current best-selling writers (or their editors or publishers) decide to include one.<\/p>\n in some novels, especially series fiction, the plot and chronology can be so intricate that devoted fans appreciate having a guide to the action. such books may include maps of the imaginary world, as well as family trees or lists of characters. many readers appreciate a table of contents that will take them to the chapter they want to read and reread.<\/p>\n in diana gabaldon\u2019s latest addition to her popular outlander series, go tell the bees that i am gone<\/em> (delacorte press, 2021), the table of contents takes seven pages to lay out the book\u2019s five parts and 155 chapters. show that to those who worry about wasting valuable marketing space. in this case, the contents pages are <\/em>marketing, with evocative chapter titles like \u201cthe women will ha\u2019 a fit\u201d and \u201cdead or alive.\u201d the toc appears in both the printed and electronic editions.<\/p>\nwhen a table of contents is helpful in a novel<\/span><\/h2>\n
as a guide to a complex narrative<\/strong><\/h3>\n