What Is a Preface (And Is It the Same as an Introduction or Foreword)

What Is a Preface (And Is It the Same as an Introduction or Foreword) What is a Preface? (and is it the Same as an Introduction or Foreword?) A preface is an introductory passage written about a book by its author. It's often viewed as an apologia  - which is not so much an apology as an explanation or defense of why the book exists. Because the preface is  part of a book's front matter (the pages at the start of a book with Roman numeral page numbers), it’s often confused with the foreword and the introduction.However, there are key differences between the three:A preface is written by the author about the book and is separate from the body of the book (the pages with Arabic numbers),An introduction is written by the author about the subject of the book and is part of the body,And a foreword isn’t even written by the author! It's separate from the body, and written by an expert in the field who adds credibility to the subject of the book.In this post, we'll cover all three in more detail to help you figure out how best to introduce your own book. What's the difference between a preface, foreword, and introduction? At last, the answer. Why use a preface?For an author, the preface presents the opportunity to introduce yourself, the book, and any previous projects or experiences that might have informed it. Prefaces are your chance to tell the book’s story - the story of how it went from a thought in your head to a book in our hands.Prefaces are most common in nonfiction (prologues are more popular for fiction books). However, they are present in both. They enable you to speak directly about:What you’ve created,How you created it, andWhy it’s important - or why you specifically are qualified to write about it.Many authors will even sign the end of a preface, date it, and list the location from which they wrote it (rounding out the who, when, and where of it all), like Mark Twain did below: How are you going to start your book? Let us know if you're opting for a preface, foreword, or introduction in the comment box below.