How to compose your memoir’s Back Matter, Part 3

 

Are you making progress on your memoir’s Back Matter? I hope creating those materials has been a fun project for you. (For help with writing your Acknowledgments and Author Bio, check out How to compose your memoir’s Back Matter. For info about writing your Appendix and Glossary, click on How to compose your memoir’s Back Matter, Part 2.)

 

This week we’ll look at Endnotes (also called Notes), a Chronology, and Illustration Credits.

 

Endnotes:

 

Compiling Endnotes can be a pain in the neck but they’re important, especially for citing your sources—providing copyright information for materials you used or people/books you quoted or paraphrased.

 

The folks at Author Learning Center say this: “A citation is a formal way of giving credit for material used or referenced from another source, such as a book, journal, or website. Understanding citation best practices for nonfiction, including why, when, and how to use such citations, will help you create a book that is ethically and legally sound.”

 

Author Learning Center continues with the following reasons to use citations:

 

• “It’s the law: Copyright law protects people’s work. Using too much of someone’s work without giving them credit violates the law.”
• “It helps your readers: Your readers may want to explore concepts or facts mentioned in your book. By properly using citations, your readers can easily find and read the original material.”
• “It’s the right thing to do: Don’t steal other people’s work. Give credit where it’s due.”

Read more at Citation Best Practices for Nonfiction.

 

Endnotes also allow you to add interesting supplemental information to material you’ve included in the main body of your memoir. For example, in Please, God, Don’t Make Me Go: A Foot-Dragger’s Memoir, I wrote about arriving at our remote station in Lomalinda, South America, stepping into the house assigned to us, and discovering an old telephone from Pacific Northwest Bell in our own Seattle neighborhood back home. My dad had worked for decades for PNB in Seattle, and I had worked for them during summers in high school and college. I added this in an Endnote:

 

[13] Recently I learned that the husband of my former high school classmate, Jody Sherin, worked at Pacific Northwest Bell, too, and his department sent those phones to Lomalinda.

 

You can also include Bible verses or other references that pertain to a portion of your memoir. For example, I wrote about my family’s first day in South America and the people who had welcomed us, helped us, and fed us that day. And then I wrote, “Through those people and their gifts, our family experienced Jesus’s words, ‘I was a stranger and you welcomed me.’” The endnote for that reads like this:

 

[14] See Matthew 25:35 (ESB).

 

Your publisher will tell you which style guide to use in formatting your Endnotes—perhaps Associated Press Style (AP), Chicago Manual of Style, the Christian Writer’s Manual of Style, Modern Language Association (MLA), or the publisher’s own style guide.

 

For more information about Endnotes, click on:

What Are Endnotes, Why Are They Needed, and How Are They Used?

Chicago Manual of Style’s Notes and Bibliography: Sample Citations

Citation Best Practices for Nonfiction 

How to Cite Sources. . .

 

Chronology:

 

Your memoir’s End Matter can also include a Chronology (Timeline) if your story isn’t in chronological order.

 

Illustration Credits:

 

If not provided in captions or otherwise, Illustration Credits should be included in a page with that information. Some authors put Illustration Credits in their Acknowledgments or Copyright page.   

 

Remember:

Some pros consider Back Matter/End Matter to be optional.

Do what you think is best,

keeping in mind the types of information

your readers would enjoy.

Ask yourself what you like to check out

in a book’s Back Matter,

and then supply that for your readers.

They will thank you.

 

How to compose your memoir’s Back Matter, Part 2

 

I hope you’ve enjoyed working on your memoir’s Acknowledgments and Author Bio. (If you missed last week’s post, click on How to compose your memoir’s Back Matter.)

 

This week we’ll look at two additional components (usually optional) of your memoir’s Back Matter (End Matter)—an Appendix and a Glossary.

 

Appendix:

 

On this page, include additional information and resources for the benefit of your readers.

 

“The book appendix is the perfect place for more details on a subject in the book that perhaps the author didn’t have time to include fully or didn’t have room for,” writes Kevin Osworth.

 

He continues, “The appendix may provide additional resources (books, articles, research) for the reader to explore on their own time.”

 

For examples of appendices, look through books on your shelves and at the public library.

 

At the following links you’ll find more information, including examples: What is an Appendix Page? and The Lowdown on Appendixes/Appendices.  

 

Glossary:

 

A Glossary is a list of words that might be unfamiliar to your readers, along with their definitions. If in your memoir you use technical terms, specialized information, lingo of an era or culture, or foreign words, include them in your Glossary.

 

In my most recent memoir, Please, God, Don’t Make Me Go: A Foot-Dragger’s Memoir, I included a Glossary for the Spanish words I used in my story. Here’s an excerpt:

  

GLOSSARY

ajiaco   a popular soup made of chicken, potatoes, corn, and spices
alto   stop
arecife   red lava gravel
adiós   goodbye
bif   beef
bodega   storage room
buenos días   hello
campesino   peasant farmer
cédula   identification card
chicha   a fermented drink made from chewed kernels of corn

 

“Keep the definitions simple and reader-friendly,” writes Alexander Peterman. “Make sure the definitions are clear and tailored to the average reader. You do not want to sound like a dictionary or use language that is overly academic or technical. The definition should explain what the term means . . . in the simplest terms possible.”

 

You’ll find additional helpful information in Peterman’s, How to Write A Glossary.

 

If you haven’t already started rough drafts 

of your memoir’s Appendix and Glossary, 

this would be a good time to do so. 

Also, continue working on 

your Acknowledgments and Author Bio. 

Most of all, have fun!

 

How to compose your memoir’s Back Matter

 

Recently we studied your memoir’s Front Matter, and this week we’ll begin looking at its Back Matter (or End Matter)—those pages that appear after the Main Body of your book.

 

Often I read a book’s Back Matter before reading the story itself.

 

Do you?

 

I’m drawn to the Back Matter because after reading it (as well as the Front Matter), I feel a connection to the author and have a better grasp of the story I will soon enter.

 

Many if not all Back Matter components are considered optional. This week we’ll look at the first two:

 

Acknowledgments:

 

Most people want to publicly thank those who helped them write their books.

 

But not everyone advocates including Acknowledgments. That seems strange, I know.

 

Mick Silva writes this about Acknowledgments: “I know many people who are against acknowledgment pages. But to me, . . .  acknowledgments are the best part of a book. Teamwork, camaraderie, and sacrificial love get poured into an author and their work, and it’s often on wonderful display in the acknowledgment pages. It’s a testament to all that goes into a book. . . .” Mick Silva, Higher Purpose Writers.

 

I agree, Mick, I agree!

 

Judith Briles offers a long list of those you could include in your Acknowledgments:  Click on Who Are You Going to Acknowledge in Your Book?

 

Tucker Max also offers insightful tips and examples in his post, How to Write Your Book Acknowledgments.

 

Author Bio (“About the Author”):

 

In my opinion, an Author Bio (“About the Author”) is a must. Usually the Author Bio is in the Back Matter, but occasionally you’ll find one in a book’s Front Matter. I favor placing it in the Back Matter.

 

You’ll write your Author Bio in third person. For example: “Jane Doe has written _____ and ______ . . . . She lives in ___________. . . .”

 

If you’re a speaker, and/or if you’ve written other books, newspaper/magazine articles, chapters for anthologies, or guest blog posts, include that in your Author Bio.

 

Also tell readers what makes you uniquely qualified to write your memoir. For example, in my Author Bio in Please, God, Don’t Make Me Go: A Foot-Dragger’s Memoir, I wrote that I’d spent three years working in South America which, you’ll no doubt agree, qualifies me to write a memoir about living there. I also included info about my other memoir, Grandma’s Letters from Africa, stating that I worked as a missionary journalist and that the publisher gave the memoir three awards.

 

If you haven’t previously published anything, don’t worry—just skip that aspect of your Author Bio. Joel Pitney offers this advice for first-timers: “Some authors don’t feel like they have enough to say about themselves; but just the fact that you’ve written a book makes you important enough to have at least a 3-4 line bio! Think creatively about what elements of who you are might be of interest to readers; don’t be shy!”

 

Consider including your education, background, past experiences, and interests, especially if they pertain to your memoir and lend credibility.

 

In my most recent Author Bio, I also included links to Facebook Pages for my two memoirs, followed by “In addition to speaking, Linda teaches the craft of writing memoir to community and church groups and through her blog, Spiritual Memoirs 101 at https://spiritualmemoirs101.blogspot.com.”

 

Include links for your newsletter, as well as other social media info if you’re comfortable doing so.

 

And be sure to include a professional-quality photo of yourself.

 

For additional tips on how to write your Author Bio, click on the following:

4 Elements to Craft Your Author Bio

How to Write a Killer Author Bio

 

For now, work on your Acknowledgments and Author Bio, and come back next week when we’ll cover additional components of your memoir’s Back Matter.