Acknowledgements And Dedications In Your Book

There are some parts of the book creation process that many authors don’t think about until it is time to publish, and whether to include any acknowledgements or dedications is usually one of them.

You spend so many hours focusing on getting your story finished, and then many more hours editing and redrafting your book to make it into the best shape possible to publish, that often authors forget about people they’d like to thank or someone they’d like to dedicate their book to.

This naturally can be frustrating, as making changes to your book once it’s in the public domain can be tricky and expensive.

While writing a book can be a solitary task, it also, in some ways, involves many other people. Those who assist you with research, who help you with editing, or who simply support you and cook you hot meals through those long hours where you can’t quite tear yourself away from your work!

Taking the time to thank these people when your book is published is a good way to acknowledge the hard work, love and care of others that have helped make your book possible.

Acknowledgement or a dedication - what’s the difference?

Many authors chose to dedicate their books to a special someone, a partner, their children, a dear friend. A dedication is usually just a simple line explaining who the book is dedicated to, but could be an opportunity to write a heartfelt message or say something witty. Dedications can be skipped over by the reader, but can also help make the author seem more human, and endear the reader to them before they’ve even begun the story.

An acknowledgements page is a more lengthy affair. This can be a few pages long and go into more detail explaining who you would like to thank and why. This provides the author with an opportunity to show their gratitude as well as give credit where credit is due. Depending on what kind of book you have written you may have relied heavily on help from someone else, or many others, and it is important that you make this clear - if nothing else it means in your next book you may find people are more than willing to help you again!

Who should be acknowledged?

Typically, authors mention friends and family members who have supported and guided them throughout the book crafting process, their sources, editors, illustrators, mentors and, if they have one, of course, their publisher!

What should be included in an acknowledgement?

This really is up to you. You can keep it very simple or can go into more detail. However, it is important to try not to go too overboard - authors can get the fear they will leave someone out and don’t know when to draw the line - you don’t need to thank every person that ever did anything nice for you in your life - try to keep it short and sweet. It can be a good idea to get someone to take a look before you make it set in stone. This way you can be sure it reads well doesn’t go on for too long and you haven’t left anyone crucial out!

A dedication and an acknowledgements page is a nice way to finish the book creation process on a positive and humble note. Let's face it, it’s rare that an author gets to the publishing stage completely by themselves, and thanking those who helped you along the way will fill everyone with that warm, fuzzy feeling - and they’ll probably all buy your book too!

Bethany Cadman -author of 'Doctor Vanilla's Sunflowers'

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