Back Matter Order: What Goes After The End (and In What Sequence)

By Tracy Atkins, founder of BookDesigner.ai and BookDesignTemplates.com · 15+ years of print files, 70,000+ authors · Updated August 8, 2026

The full sequence, in order

Back matter has a logical order the same way front matter does, and it exists for the same reason: it puts what most readers want first and what fewer readers need further back, while saving the very last page for you.

1. Acknowledgments, only if you did not place them in the front matter
2. Author's note, sometimes called an afterword
3. Appendices, supporting material referenced in the text
4. Notes or endnotes, citations tied to specific pages or chapters
5. Glossary, terms or invented vocabulary defined
6. Bibliography, sources consulted or recommended
7. Index, nonfiction only
8. About the author
9. Also-by / newsletter page, always last

Not every book uses every section. What matters is that whichever sections you do include stay in this relative order, because it is the order readers of that genre expect and the order most editors and formatters were trained on.

Why this order, specifically

Two ideas govern the sequence. First, reference material gets easier to skip the further it sits from the story or argument the reader actually came for: an author's note is still emotionally connected to the book, while a bibliography is purely for the reader who wants to go further. Second, the very last page of the book is the highest-attention real estate you own. A reader who reaches it just finished your book and is, for a moment, thinking about you and what to read next. That is why the also-by or newsletter page goes dead last, after even the about the author page, and never gets buried in the middle of other back matter.

What fiction actually needs

Most novels need far less back matter than authors tend to include. A typical, well-built fiction back matter looks like this:

• Author's note, if there is context worth sharing (research behind a historical detail, a dedication that needed room, a note on a sensitive topic)
• About the author
• Also-by page or newsletter signup, last

That is often the entire list. Appendices, glossaries, and bibliographies belong almost exclusively to nonfiction, historical fiction built on real research the author wants to credit, or fantasy and science fiction with invented systems, languages, or family trees dense enough that readers actually reach for them. If you are not sure whether your fantasy world needs a glossary, a useful test is whether beta readers asked for one; if nobody asked, it usually is not needed and just adds page count without adding to the pitch you are making to a browsing reader.

What nonfiction usually needs

Nonfiction tends to use most of the list, roughly in this shape:

An index in particular is a nonfiction convention that almost never appears in fiction. It is worth building properly (it is a project of its own, not something to fake with a rough page-number list) precisely because readers of reference and how-to books use it after they buy the book, not before, so a missing or sloppy index shows up in reviews rather than in browsing decisions.

The acknowledgments placement question

Whether acknowledgments belong in the front matter or the back matter is genuinely a judgment call, not a firm rule. Many novelists place a short acknowledgments page in the front, right after or before the title page, so it is read before the story starts. Nonfiction authors more often put a longer acknowledgments section in the back, near the author's note, since front-loading a long thank-you list ahead of the argument can slow the opening. Whichever you choose, place it once. Duplicate acknowledgments in both the front and back is a common self-published tell that a professional layout would not include.

The one page that earns its keep

If you cut everything else from your back matter and kept only one page, keep the last one. A clean also-by page with your other titles, or a one-line invitation to a newsletter with a clear next step, converts a reader's momentary goodwill into an actual next action. It costs nothing to include and it is the single highest-leverage page in the entire back matter, precisely because of where it sits.

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