Are tables of contents mandatory in novels?

Question

I've had several people ask me why my fiction story does not have a table of contents. I never really thought about it, seeing as plenty of fiction stories do not have one either. Is a table of contents mandatory or 'traditional' in fictional writing? Or is this like other writing rules where it can be broken based on different author style?

I am self-publishing, so I do not have an agent or publisher telling me what they want for the book. My last editor did not seem surprised that my story did not have a table of contents either, so I am looking for an official stance on this, or a reputable source detailing what is expected in this type of writing. Are there pro's and con's to each way?

Answer 1

Starting around the 1920's dust jackets started to get decorative and became a place where you could market the book. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_jacket#Oldest_dust_jackets) That function has now migrated to the back page of the paperback. There is no place to put marketing material on the cover of a hardback book (though there are a few hardback formats that are smooth and printable these days).

Before the 1920's hardbound books had highly decorated covers and the dust jackets were plainer and were mostly discarded by bookstore before being put on the shelf.

Given this, it seems reasonable to speculate that the reason for a table of content in a novel was as a way to market the book by telling the reader what to expect inside. In support of this we should note that many 19th century TOCs included a synopsis of each chapter as well as the title.

Once books had decorative dust jackets or printable back covers, there was another place to tell the reader what the book was about. Conventions of the form are slow to die, but TOCs in novels seem to have been fading away over the last century as they serve no real purpose for the modern reader.

Clearly it is permissible and, indeed, conventional, to omit them today.

Answer 2

I've seen many novels with a table of contents, and many without. Whether it matters depends more on how you want to structure things, than on any actual rule.

I've also seen novels with no actual chapters, just tens of thousands of words all in a row (broken into paragraphs, of course) -- and novels with chapters as short as half a page.

What works is dependent on what works for your story.

Answer 3

No. they are not. I personally find them quaint and assume the author is old when I see them.

I believe the idea of sections in fantasy has also percolated through the genre. Sometimes a fantasy novel will have three sections, which could be called 'beginning middle and end' but are usually given more descriptive names. Each section has its own set of chapters. I find these unnecessary, but structurally I understand why they are sometimes there. They help the reader understand that the book is going to take a new course now, and character voices, pacing, or other items may change.

Answer 4

I've never read a fiction book and expected a table of contents. Also some of my favorite books have no table of contents nor chapter titles. So from a reader's viewpoint I see no flaw in not having a table of contents.

Answer 5

Although I do not feel it is required to use a Table of Contents, I will suggest that it has been helpful for me in structuring. Also, I love that if I am working on my manuscript and I think of something that I want to go back to, I can go to my TOC and click on a page number and find the area I'm concerned with very quickly. So, even if you consider using a TOC just for your manuscript to use it as a helpful tool for your own purposes, it could be deleted afterwards before going to print.

Answer 6

Whatever works best.

If your chapters have names, it might be good (but isn't necessary).

With chapters that are numbered, the Contents page might look a bit weird.

Answer 7

I've seen many novels that don't have a Table of Contents.

In a non-fiction book, it makes a lot of sense to have a TOC. Someone might want to skip to the part that is of interest to him right now. If, say, I was searching for information about the Battle of Gettysburg, I might open a book called "History of the Civil War" and look for a chapter whose title said something about Gettysburg.

In a novel, a TOC with descriptive chapter titles might give away what's going to happen, spoiling the story. To take a ridiculous extreme, a murder mystery with a TOC labeling the last chapter, "George confesses to the murder" would likely ruin the story for anyone who looked at the TOC before reading the book.

That's not likely to be a problem in a non-fiction book. Non-fiction books don't generally have surprise endings. Like I don't get to the end of an astronomy book and say, "Oh, wow, what a neat twist! Pluto turned out to not be a planet after all!"

Because of this, many novels don't give their chapters names but just numbers. So a TOC would just be "Chapter 1 ... page 1, Chapter 2 ... page 27", etc, which would likely be pretty useless.