Today we are going to talk about a glossary. Not every book will have one. However, if you use regional expressions, terms in other languages, or vocabulary that your readers might not be familiar with, then you might include a glossary as one of the back matter sections of your book.

For example, I use many Mexican Spanish terms in my books. Although I define or translate the words and phrases in the text, usually using parenthesis, I could very well create a glossary and have those terms listed alphabetically for reference in the glossary.

If you include medical or legal terms, you might want to consider adding a glossary as well. It might not be convenient to stop and define these terms as they appear in the story. Hence, a glossary.

Ebook and print book glossaries are designed differently. In both types of books, there is a separate glossary section that readers can scroll through. In an ebook, the words that appear in the glossary are underlined in the text and hyperlinked to the definitions in the glossary. A print book obviously doesn’t have this linking capability.

I use Pressbooks to format most of my books rather than Microsoft Word, which I find overly complicated. Pressbooks has a glossary function and step-by-step instructions on how to create an interactive glossary.

If you are using Word to format your blog to book project, you might find this video or article helpful.

Google Docs also has instructions on how to create a glossary using their program which you can find here.

Ultimately, whether you include a glossary or not is up to you as the author. If your readers need help understanding some of the vocabulary used in your book, then a glossary is one way to help them out.

Assignment:

Decide whether or not your Blog to Book Project needs a glossary, then make it so.