Create Your Template A Readers’ Guide Marketing Tool
A Table of Contents in a book creates a navigation tool for the reader. A traditional publisher will require one. Readers also judge your book by your Table of Contents. Amazon features the Look Inside! feature to entice readers to get a quick look at your book. A Table of Contents is also a good means of structuring your chapters. In non-fiction books, a Table of Contents is a must; in fiction, it is not.
Organize at least 10 main topics that you want to cover in your book and write compelling chapter titles for them. There will always be one or two—or three—that won’t fit your clever chapter naming process; just jot down your main idea—you can polish later.
If you are writing a memoir, you have organized your memories and facts into a coherent story and your chapter titles become your Table of Contents. If writing non-fiction, you have compiled your research and if writing a how-to book, you’ve created a step-by-step process for making your product. Use your research and process to write your Table of Contents. A Table of Contents helps a novelist organize the story line.
If you are writing a family history create a time-line for your story and make reference to your ancestors’ locations in your titles; e.g. Life in 19th Century England, Sailing to America, A New Land, First Generation Americans. If you are writing a story about something that you’ve overcome in life, you will have the themes of before, after, and during your hardship or tragedy. For a novel, have your chapter title indicate a main character or plot theme.
For those of you who prefer a basic chapter title and page number, it would look like this:
Chapter 1: Life in 19th Century England…..page 2
Chapter 2: Sailing to America……………..page 6
Chapter 3: A New Land…………………..page 10
Chapter 4: First Generation Americans……page 17
The Internet is full of examples for those who would prefer something a bit more creative.
As with all aspects of writing, have your trusted family and friends look at your Table of Contents and provide you feedback: a bore, a snore, or a score? Now that you are refreshed and can look at it with feedback and fresh eyes, keep the scores, rewrite the bores and snores.
Remember, a good Table of Contents is a good marketing tool. If the chapter titles attract a reader, that person will be walking out of the store with your book in hand or downloading it onto his or her tablet.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________