I'm finishing the revision on my next nonfiction book, which is a heavily-researched exploration of how the weapons of psychological war show up in culture wars. It's a popular book, not academic. I have a zillion footnotes. Should I:
@annaleen Hyperlink! For those who like to go down virtual rabbitholes. But wait, this is going to be printed on actual sheets of paper. Can we maybe invent hyperlinks for paper?
@annaleen I tend to read in ebook so it doesn't matter very much for me format-wise (I can click on the note number, read it and go back to the main text), but I generally like to be able to read the footnote as soon as it comes up, otherwise if it's an endnote I'm more likely to forget to flip around and thus miss potentially important context.
@annaleen As a reader i can feel footnotes sometimes disrupt the flow. But still i prefer them being on the same page rather than flipping back and forth. Even on an E-reader. When they start to get too long, so long that my mind releases the "mian thread" whilst readint the footnote, then they should perhaps be chucked to the back. But the attention span is per reader so that will be tricky to balance.
@annaleen I agree with the chatty comments/context in footnotes and references in endnotes approach. I deeply appreciate any additional context being on the same page so I don't have to stop and flip for it.
@annaleen Endnotes for bibliographic references. Footnotes for digressions, expansions, and asides. Depending on your publisher’s forbearance and how many you have, you might consider Tufte-style sidetones.
Most of the books I read these days are electronic in EPUB format, and they never do a good job with end/footnotes.
@annaleen I have LOVED reading Ibram X Kendi's revised edition of How To Be Anti-Racist, because of all his shared updates and revisions. He presents it like GitHub PRs; almost always providing a reason why his POV is different now, from before. Just ingesting that data, was its own learning experience—well beyond the book itself.
@annaleen not voting, because not sure which approach is right for your book, but there was one book I read (most of) that did the end note thing in a really compelling way. The end notes were as long, if not longer, than the main text, and I ended up reading with two bookmarks so I could flip back and forth. The end notes had the really interesting, but more detailed, stuff that probably wasn't for every reader, but to fit them into context I had to read the main text along with the end notes.
@annaleen depends on what's in them. If it's just pointers to sources or other references, then endnotes or references. If it's additional context/commentary, then footnotes please
@annaleen I think endnotes are a good middle ground. Readers can ignore them if they don't care, but they can also check them if they want to learn more or verify that the source says what the author claims it says. If your claims are even a little bit controversial, I think endnotes are important.
Personally, I also like endnotes because they tend not to be as cramped and hard to read as footnotes.
@annaleen I like to find footnotes with references, comments, etc. straightaway in the same page. I hate going back and forth, I end up NOT reading endnotes at all. I can think of a few novels that used footnotes and I loved them even there, so I don't equal footnotes with academic books, but I DO equal endnotes with (the worst kind of) academic books.
@annaleen footnotes, unless they are all references then endnotes.
Footnotes as short explanations or asides are great
Edit: reading the conversations you've mostly got references. Endnotes always work best for those for me, and I've got deep biases for and against different citation styles. But that's likely a hot potato issue in general. Good luck either way!
@annaleen I like it when there are footnotes for interesting little stories (e.g. "After leaving Byron's employ, his valet would go on to become a popular author...") and endnotes for boring citations (e.g. "Ibid p.72")
@annaleen For that sort of book, I'm a fan of blank endnotes. The endnotes are there, and are keyed by chapter/page to the source material, but there are no note numbers in the body, which means normal people aren't bothered.
@annaleen Bottom footnotes can be a lot in a book for a general reader. But in an in depth discussion I like a good footnote especially when it gives historical context or an anecdote that illustrates the point. Is there a chapter entitled “ Republicans Have Been Doing This For Twenty Years”?
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