How to write a book table of contents, with a template and an example

What goes in it

The table of contents lists the parts of the book in the order they appear. For most nonfiction books, that means:

Chapter titles that sell the book

Someone deciding whether to buy your book often reads the contents in the online preview or in a bookstore. If your chapters are called "Chapter 1," "Chapter 2" and "Chapter 3," the contents tells them nothing. If each title names what the chapter gives the reader, the contents page becomes a short pitch for the book.

• Name the promise or the idea. "Why Your Best People Leave in Year Two" says more than "Retention."
• Keep them short enough to scan. A few words, with a subtitle only if it earns its place.
• Make them read as a path. Read the titles from top to bottom. They should tell the argument of the book in order.
• Keep the style consistent. All questions, all commands or all statements reads cleaner than a mix.
• Match the chapter. A title is a promise. If the chapter changed in revision, change the title too.

If your chapters are not set yet, start with Stage 3: outline your book, which shows how to order chapters and give each one a single point. The title and subtitle guide covers the same thinking for the book's own title.

How to build it in Word, Google Docs or Kindle Create

Do not type the contents by hand. Every program below builds it from your chapter headings and updates it when they change.

• Microsoft Word. Microsoft's help page says to give each chapter title the Heading 1 style (Home, Styles), click where the contents should go, then open References and pick an automatic style from Table of Contents. Avoid the manual styles, which fill in placeholder text instead of your headings. After changes, right-click the table and choose Update Field on Windows or Update Table of Contents on a Mac.
• Google Docs. Google's help page: format chapter titles as headings (Format, Paragraph styles), then choose Insert, Page elements, Table of contents. Click the table and the refresh icon after you add or change headings.
• Kindle Create. Amazon's free formatting tool. KDP's help says it automatically finds and formats the chapter titles when you import your file.

Whichever you use, the contents is only as good as your headings. If a chapter is missing, its title probably is not set as a heading.

Print and ebook differences

Ebooks. KDP's paperback formatting guide notes that Amazon requires all Kindle eBooks to have a TOC. KDP's ebook help describes two kinds: an HTML table of contents, which is a page at the beginning of your book with links to each chapter, and the interactive table of contents in the Kindle menu, which readers can open from anywhere in the book. Ebook contents have no page numbers, because pages change with the screen and font size; KDP's Word steps tell you to clear the "Show Page Numbers" box.

Print. KDP says not all paperbacks have a contents page, but nonfiction readers expect one. Print contents list the page each item starts on. Those numbers are only final once the book is laid out, so update the table after the last change to the interior and check every number against the page it points to.

A template and an example

Copy this and replace everything in brackets. Delete the parts line if your book has no parts.

Contents

Foreword by [name] .......................... [page]
Introduction: [title] ....................... [page]

Part One: [part title]
  1  [Chapter title] ......................... [page]
  2  [Chapter title] ......................... [page]
  3  [Chapter title] ......................... [page]

Part Two: [part title]
  4  [Chapter title] ......................... [page]
  5  [Chapter title] ......................... [page]

Conclusion: [title] ......................... [page]
Acknowledgments ............................. [page]
Notes ....................................... [page]
About the Author ............................ [page]

Here is the template filled in for an invented book about keeping good employees, so you can see how titles read as a path. The book, chapters and page numbers are made up.

Contents

Introduction: The Resignation You Didn't See Coming .... 1

Part One: Why They Leave
  1  The Year-Two Cliff ................................ 9
  2  What Exit Interviews Get Wrong .................... 23
  3  The Manager Is the Job ............................ 37

Part Two: How to Keep Them
  4  The First Ninety Days, Done Right ................. 53
  5  Growth Without a Promotion ........................ 69
  6  The Conversation to Have Before They Look ......... 85

Conclusion: A Place Worth Staying ..................... 101
Acknowledgments ....................................... 109
Notes ................................................. 111
About the Author ...................................... 117

Where it goes

The Chicago Manual of Style lists the front matter in this order: title pages, copyright page, dedication and epigraph, then the table of contents, followed by any list of illustrations or tables, and then a foreword, preface and acknowledgments when the book has them. In an ebook, the contents page sits near the front and the interactive version lives in the reader's menu.

For the pages that come before it, see the guides to the copyright page, the dedication and the epigraph. For what comes after, see foreword, preface or introduction.