Create a Good ‘Table of Contents’ for your book

illustration of a man editing a manuscript on a laptop with a cat beside him

I edited a book manuscript sometime back that was sent to me by a doctor. He had written his autobiography. 

He had expressed himself well enough in the book and brought together most of his important life experiences with good detail. When I saw the manuscript for the first time, I noticed the ‘Table of Contents’ section first. 

Table of Contents (ToC) is an important part of any book. A good ‘Table of Contents’ in a book can make a big impact on a browser/reader, either in a physical bookshop or online.

This autobiographical manuscript had a ToC alright, but as I did a quick read of the whole manuscript, I found that many important life events were not mentioned in the ToC. 

Before I started editing, I started adding new chapters and subchapters to the ToC. When I had finished the work, the ToC had spread to four pages. I didn’t mind it at all. In fact, I liked that now anybody flipping through the ‘Table of Contents’ of this book would get a good overview of the doctor’s life history. 

I kept updating this ToC as I started editing the whole manuscript that had about 102,000 words. I copy-pasted a few sections at relevant pages and kept naming the new sections, which became chapters for the ToC. 

There were other regular things I did with the manuscript, like creating a stylesheet. As a result, specific words that the author wrote in say Chapter 4 matched with the words that were in Chapter 25 in terms of spelling. 

Definitely, my biggest contribution to the manuscript was improving the ‘Table of Contents’ which the author had created. 

Whenever I pick up a book in a bookshop or check it out online, I always seek to see the ToC first. A regular one-page ToC with broad names of chapters is what I see mostly. I guess that is the accepted norm, but I am firm in my opinion that a descriptive ‘Table of Contents’ adds great value to a book. 

In fact, I consider the ‘Table of Contents’ section of a book as the USP of a book that can get the reader to buy the book or ignore it completely. 

But I also understand that if a book comes highly recommended, then the earnest reader may not care much for the ToC. He would go ahead and buy it. 

I encourage you that if you are working on your WIP (work in progress), do check out your ToC again. You can surely add some new and interesting chapters there and give the readers the chance to make the 'buy decision' for your published book.

I do provide book editing service. You can check out my nonfiction book editing gig on Fiverr. You will also find many book editors there who can take care of your fiction manuscript. 

~ Raza | @bylineraza