Nonfiction books generally have similar elements. Your publishing house should provide you with their manuscript style guide. We will talk about the basic essentials here, but if you don't know how to prepare them, you might ask before you begin. Most books have these preliminary elements: Copyright page, About the Author page, Dedication, Acknowledgements, a Preface or Foreword (note the spelling), an Introduction, Table of Contents, chapter titles, chapters, Appendices, Footnotes and Endnotes, and Index. It may also have a Glossary to define technical terms, a list of cases (such as with law cases) and Illustrations and Examples.
Copyright page: supplied by the publisher with year of publication, house address and essentials, Library of Congress materials, copyright notice, etc.
About the Author: a short autobiographical sketch, often appearing on the left facing the title page, usually for technical books or ones with specialized knowledge.
Dedication: usually a note dedicating the book to a loved one.
Acknowledgements: official public recognition for the help someone has given the work.
Preface: an introductory section that comments on the aspects of the text or the writer’s intentions.
Foreword: an introductory note or essay often written by somebody other than the author—a colleague, about indirect sponsorship of the work, thanking the author for making the contribution to the body of knowledge.
Preface: the author talks about the book and acknowledges any assistance he had in its preparation.
Introduction: an enticement leading the reader into the text material.
Table of Contents (TOC) or Contents: chapter titles leading the reader through the book; helps to establish the order of the book.
Chapter Titles: descriptive banners for chapter contents. They should be similar in slant and parallel in construction.
Appendices or Appendix: a collection of separate material at the end of a book; could contain a Bibliography (a list of books used as reference), tables of information, statistical facts—it can also contain author’s note, resources, anything pertinent but not in the text.
Footnotes and Endnotes: items used to clarify, qualify or expand upon points made in the text, sometimes called explanatory footnotes or endnotes, or annotated footnotes. Make sure you know the publishing house's required style for numbers and how they should be incorporated into the text.
Index: the value of an index is immeasurable. With complicated subject matter it is a necessity. Often purchasers of textbooks base their decisions on the breadth of the index. An index to me is a form of thinking backward when created, and uses key words, as well as a list of modifiers to put it into perspective that point the reader to the correct page(s) for information.