What goes in the footer in a novel?

Either the page number or nothing at all.


In book design, the footer is the space at the bottom of each page between the main page content and the edge of the page.

Typically, the footer contains either the page number (either centre-aligned or aligned to the outer-side of each page) or nothing at all (with the page number instead going in the header).

Typically the footer does not include information like the book title, chapter title, or author name.

Note that the front matter of a book (the material before the main title page and the start of the main content) may use a different page-numbering system to the rest of the book. The front matter might number pages using Roman numerals, for example – i, ii, iii, iv, v – and then the main content of the book uses regular numerals – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.

Often, the first page of a chapter or section within a book doesn’t show the page header. (This is because such a page might have a chapter or section heading on it, and a page header can look inelegant above that.) However, in these cases, the footer is still shown.

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