A book title page is the page that names the book formally: full title, subtitle, author, and the publisher or imprint. It sits on a right-hand page near the front, after the half title and before the copyright page. Library cataloguing rules take the book's formal title from this page rather than from the cover.
What goes on a book title page?
| Element | Required? | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Full title | Yes | The same wording as the cover and the store listing |
| Subtitle | If the book has one | Smaller than the title, on its own line |
| Author name | Yes | As it appears on the cover, pen name included |
| Contributors | If any | "Illustrated by", "Translated by", "With a foreword by" |
| Publisher or imprint | Usually | A self-publisher can use their own imprint name, or leave it off |
| Logo | Optional | Small, near the bottom |
| City and year | Optional | Traditional in academic and literary books |
What it leaves out matters just as much: no blurb, no price, no reviews, no ISBN. The ISBN and the legal lines go on the copyright page, printed on the back of the title page. Do you need an ISBN? covers when you need one at all.
Where does the title page go?
In a printed book the order is set by convention. The half title comes first, often with a blank or a list of the author's other books on its back. The title page follows on the next right-hand page, with the copyright page on its back. Everything else in the front matter comes after. Front matter and back matter lists the full sequence.
Right-hand pages are called recto, left-hand pages verso. By convention the title page is always recto.
What is the difference between a title page, a half title and the cover?
| Cover | Half title | Title page | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What's on it | Title, author, artwork, often a tagline | The title alone | Title, subtitle, author, publisher |
| Purpose | Sell the book | Protect the title page, open the book quietly | Name the book formally |
| Design | Full artwork | Small type, lots of space | Type only, maybe a small logo |
| Needed? | Always | Common in print, skippable in short books | Always |
The cover sells; the title page records. That is why the title page drops the tagline and the artwork and keeps every name. Book cover design covers the selling side.
How do you write the subtitle?
The subtitle is where a non-fiction book says who it is for and what the reader will be able to do. The title earns the glance, the subtitle explains it. A few patterns that work, shown with made-up books:
- Outcome: *The Quiet Ledger: A Field Guide to Doing Less*
- Reader plus result: *Small Kitchen: Weeknight Dinners for One or Two*
- Method: *Plain Words: Writing Clear Reports in Seven Steps*
- Series or edition: *The Garden Year: Book Two*, or *Second Edition* on its own line
Fiction rarely uses a subtitle, except for a series line ("A Harbour Town Mystery"). On the title page the subtitle sits one size or two below the title, with space between them. How to title a book goes deeper on choosing both.
What does a good title page look like?
Most of the page is white space. A crowded title page, with everything pushed to the top, tends to make a book look home-made. Three rules cover most of it:
- Centre everything and start the title about a third of the way down the page.
- Use the book's own typefaces. The title in the heading face, the rest in the body face at a modest size. No new fonts for one page.
- Keep the hierarchy to three levels: title, then subtitle, then author and publisher. If you need a fourth size, something on the page doesn't belong there.
Here is the same title page for three kinds of book, top to bottom:
| Novel | Non-fiction | Report or manual |
|---|---|---|
| THE NIGHT FERRY | THE QUIET LEDGER | Q3 SUPPORT REVIEW |
| A Harbour Town Mystery | A Field Guide to Doing Less | Response times, July to September |
| Ana Ruiz | Morgan Reyes | Support team |
| Lantern Books | Small Press · 2026 | October 2026 · v1.2 |
A report's title page swaps the publisher for the team, date and version. How to write a report shows the rest of that skeleton.
Does an ebook need a title page?
Yes, but a lighter one. In an EPUB the title page usually follows the cover image as the first page of text. Keep the title, subtitle and author. Drop the half title: in a reflowable book it is just a screen with two words on it. Many reading apps open a book at chapter one, so don't put anything on the title page that a reader must see.
How do you make a title page in Markdown?
The title page is a block of Markdown with a page break after it. In bukpress a line of three dashes (---) is a hard page break, so the half title, title page and copyright page are three short blocks at the top of the same file as the chapters:
# The Quiet Ledger
---
# The Quiet Ledger
## A Field Guide to Doing Less
Morgan Reyes
Small Press
---
Copyright (c) 2026 Morgan Reyes. All rights reserved.The title takes your heading typeface and the rest your body settings, set once for the whole book. The preview shows the page as the PDF will set it, so you can see the spacing before you export. Uploaded cover artwork is a separate image and doesn't replace the title page. The sample book shows a real export's title page. Lifetime, $27 once, exports both the PDF and the EPUB. See pricing.
Common questions
Is the title page the same as the cover?
No. The cover is the outside of the book and sells it with artwork. The title page is inside, on a right-hand page, and names the book in type only.
Does a title page need the publisher's name?
Only if there is one. Self-published authors can use their own imprint name, or put only the title, subtitle and author.
What goes on the back of the title page?
The copyright page: the copyright line, rights reserved, edition, ISBN if the book has one, and any credits for the cover or editing.
Should the title page have a page number?
Traditionally no: the pages that open a book count but show no number. Not every tool can hide them. In bukpress page numbers are one toggle for the whole PDF, so a title page written in the Markdown gets a number when it's on. Page numbers in a Markdown PDF explains the options.