A half title page is a page at the front of a book that just has the title of the book on it – not the author’s name or any other information. It is usually the very first page of a book.
A half title page is also called a bastard title page.
The half title page differs from the title page as the title page usually has both the title of the book and the author’s name on it (and nothing else), whereas the half title page has just the title of the book. The half title page will often use a slightly smaller font for the title of the book than the title page does – the half title page is very minimal. The half title page is usually the very first page of the book, whereas the title page usually appears much closer to the start of the main text, after most of the front matter of the book.
A half title page generally isn’t an absolute requirement for a modern book – you could choose not to have one if you wanted – particularly if you’re using a fully-automated print-on-demand service. However, it is conventional for novels and novel-like books.
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