Manuscript Preparation, Copyediting, and Proofreading

Q. If a copyright page needs to appear at the end of a book (because, for example, p. iv needs to be used for sponsor information), does the copyright page need to appear in the table of contents? CMOS 1.38 explains why the copyright page is not included when it precedes the TOC (“[TOC] should include all preliminary material that follows it but exclude anything that precedes it”), but it’s not clear whether the copyright page should be included when it falls at the book’s end. Thanks!

A. A copyright page at the back of a book does not need to be included in the contents list, especially if the copyright page is unnumbered. But there’s no rule against including it, in which case the page should be numbered.