Footnotes vs. Endnotes
You quote some people/books/articles in your book and you know you’re supposed to cite your sources because it was drilled into you in school . . . but you don’t know how. All you know is that citing sources was the most confusing part of writing any paper in school.
I get it. It was for me too.
I’m not even going to try to convince you that it’s not that hard in this blog post. If you want to do all the citations yourself, amazing! Check out this blog post to help you.
If all you want is to know enough to decide if you want footnotes or endnotes so someone else can handle it (maybe me?), this is the blog post for you! Here’s a super-simple explanation of footnotes and endnotes and why you might want either one.
What’s the Difference?
Footnotes are at the foot of the page.
Endnotes are at the end of the book or chapter (probably book, end of chapter is not that common).
Footnotes are spread throughout the book since each one is on the page the quote is on. So if you have a quote on pages 7, 55, and 121, you have one footnote on each of those pages.
Endnotes are all in a long list at the end of the book, probably broken up by subheadings that label which chapter the quote is in.
Footnotes can be superscript (tiny) numbers (like this1) or symbols like an asterisk (the tiny star: *).
Endnotes are almost always superscript (tiny) numbers (like this1).
How to Decide
Which one do you need for your book? Honestly, either one is fine. There isn’t really a wrong answer. That said, here are some considerations for each one.
Footnotes
Pro: They’re easy to find—because they’re literally at the bottom of the page.
Con: If you have several on a page, they can take up a lot of space and start to look weird.
Con: Having notes at the bottom of the page might look too academic for your taste.
Endnotes
Pro: They’re hidden away from the reader’s eyes, so they’re not distracting.
Pro: They’re easy to ignore, so it doesn’t look academic.
Con: They’re a little harder to find. If the reader doesn’t know to look at the back of the book for the list of citations, they might not know where to find the source.
My Recommendations
If you have a lot of citations throughout your book, I might recommend endnotes, just so they don’t take up a lot of space at the bottom of each page.
If you’re afraid readers will get scared away by the academic look of footnotes, do endnotes.
You know how sometimes there’s a * on a word and then more information or a disclaimer at the bottom of the page (not a citation but still a footnote)? If you have a mix of this and actual citations, I recommend using endnotes for the citations and footnotes for additional information.
If you have fewer than ten citations, footnotes are probably easiest. If you have fewer than three, it might be best to do endnotes and actually put them on the copyright page. Weird, I know, but it works when you have very few.
If you have no idea what to do and you’re pulling out your hair at this point with how many decisions you’re supposed to make when publishing a book, just do endnotes (my personal preference). :)
