How to Write a Great Book Introduction: Step-by-Step Guide

A nonfiction book introduction can appear in the form of a foreword or preface, which comes before the formal first chapter of your main text. In other words, when someone starts reading, the first page of prose they see will be your foreword—but they will have already seen a title page and a table of contents. Together, the title page, copyright page, table of contents, and author’s preface are known as the front matter of the book. By contrast, a book’s back matter consists of elements like an epilogue, an appendix, a works cited page, endnotes, and an index.

Whether you’re a New York Times bestselling author or a new writer self-publishing for the first time, your book’s introduction can go a long way toward sparking a reader’s interest in the rest of your book. A properly written introduction will:

1. 1. Introduce your subject matter.
2. 2. Preview your main argument and the point of view from which you make that argument.
3. 3. Outline your structure, like the prose equivalent of a table of contents.
4. 4. Tee up key information and arguments you will present in the rest of the book.

A great introduction can succinctly preview your nonfiction book and get readers invested so that they’ll keep reading all the way to the end. In some cases, an introduction is particularly valuable:

1. 1. When co-authors write a book together: Co-authors might use an introduction to explain their writing process and reflect on how their two minds combined to create a single work. They might use these opening pages to share their frames of mind when writing, discuss their main sources, and offer a newfound perspective upon having completed the book. Such a reflection can also occur in the book’s afterword, which is found at the very end of the text.
2. 2. When a new edition of a book is released: Writing introductions may also be useful when issuing a new edition of a book with added information or when introducing an anthology of essays, poetry, or short stories.
3. 3. When a fictional work needs additional scene-setting: Lastly, some fiction books use an introduction to preview a story or to serve as a “cold open”—a slice of narrative that comes before the main story formally begins.

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