{"id":3561,"date":"2026-10-22T00:21:55","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T16:21:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.outscalmail.com\/blog\/?p=3561"},"modified":"2026-10-22T00:21:55","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T16:21:55","slug":"do-the-books-in-the-book-style-box-series-have-a-foreword-41a7-3c144f","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.outscalmail.com\/blog\/2026\/10\/22\/do-the-books-in-the-book-style-box-series-have-a-foreword-41a7-3c144f\/","title":{"rendered":"Do the books in the Book – style Box Series have a foreword?"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you\u2019ve ever ordered a Book-style Box Series from me, you\u2019ve probably rifled through the contents at 2 a.m. when you thought no one was looking\u2014same. That\u2019s why I get a lot of late-night DMs (yes, I still check my personal inbox even after work) asking one specific question: Do the books in this series have a foreword? It\u2019s such a small, specific detail, but it matters a lot to people who buy these boxes for themselves, as gifts, or even as part of their small personal libraries. Let\u2019s cut the formal jargon here, since none of us have time for that\u2014let\u2019s talk about the actual process, the why, and the facts. Book-style Box Series<\/a><\/p>\n

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First, let\u2019s clarify what a Book-style Box Series even is, because a lot of folks mix it up with random gift sets. Unlike generic \u201cbook boxes\u201d you see on social media that throw three random paperbacks in a decorative box, our series is built around duplicate-bound books. That means every title in the line has a hard cover that\u2019s designed to match perfectly\u2014same color, same finish, same spine width\u2014so when you stack five, six, or even ten boxes on a shelf, they look like a single, cohesive book set, not a hodgepodge of random titles. I\u2019ve been supplying these boxes for 12 years now, and back when I started, every single book we included had a foreword. Why? Because that\u2019s what people expected\u2014back in the 2010s, forewords were standard for nearly every new release, and even most reprints aimed to have one. But around 2018, we started getting feedback that a lot of our customers were skipping over forewords entirely. They\u2019d flip past them to get to the first chapter, and we realized that if most people weren\u2019t reading that section, was it necessary to keep it?<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the thing: it\u2019s not a yes or no answer\u2014it depends entirely on the book. I can\u2019t just slap a \u201cforeword on every book\u201d rule and call it a day, because every title we source has its own story. Let\u2019s break down the two main groups in our series, because that\u2019s where the confusion comes in. The first group is what we call \u201cclassic reprints\u201d\u2014these are books like To Kill a Mockingbird<\/em> or 1984, the old favorites that have been in print for decades. For those, almost always yes, they have a foreword. Not just a random one, either\u2014we work with our republishers to pick forewords that add something new, not just a rehash of the dust jacket blurb. For example, the 2021 reprint of The Little Prince<\/em> we included in our Summer 2022 box has a foreword from a children\u2019s literature professor who talks about how the book\u2019s themes translate to teens today\u2014way more interesting than the generic one from the 1970s. We skip the forewords that are just \u201chere\u2019s how great this book is\u201d and go for the ones that feel like a chat with someone who actually gets it.<\/p>\n

The second group is \u201cnewer contemporary titles\u201d\u2014books that came out in the last 10 years, like Lessons in Chemistry<\/em> or Project Hail Mary. That\u2019s where the mix-up happens. A few years back, I noticed a lot of our newer titles didn\u2019t have forewords at all. Authors and publishers started cutting them to keep books shorter (and cheaper to print, which keeps our box prices reasonable for you). But sometimes, a foreword gets added later, after the book became a bestseller. We had a customer last month message us panicking because she bought a 2023 copy of Lessons in Chemistry<\/em> for her sister, and when we included the 2024 reprint with a foreword from Bonnie Garmus herself, she wanted to swap her old one. So here\u2019s the rule I live by now: for every contemporary book in our boxes, I make a point to check two things\u20141) does it have a foreword that\u2019s actually worth reading, and 2) do our customers in our Facebook group mention missing that section when a foreword isn\u2019t there?<\/p>\n

Wait, let\u2019s talk about our Facebook group, because that\u2019s where most of this feedback comes from. We started it in 2020, during the pandemic, because people were stuck at home hunting for ways to spruce up their shelves. Now it\u2019s 17k members strong, and half the posts are people showing off their Book-style Box Series collections, the other half are questions like \u201cwhy does this copy of Normal People<\/em> not have a foreword?\u201d or \u201cwhere\u2019s the foreword for Project Hail Mary<\/em> that everyone\u2019s talking about?\u201d A few members even pointed out that some publishers put forewords in the back of the book these days, not the front\u2014people forget that, so they flip straight past the title page and miss it. I\u2019ve had so many people tell me they\u2019ve been skipping forewords for years, but when the foreword is by someone related to the author (a friend, a family member, another writer), it actually changes how they see the book.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s get real about why this isn\u2019t a trivial detail. A lot of our customers buy these boxes as gifts\u2014for a graduate, a book club member, a parent. If you\u2019re giving a book as a gift, the foreword is that little extra touch that makes the present feel intentional. It\u2019s not just a book; it\u2019s a curation, right? I remember a customer last year who bought a Book-style Box Series for her 16-year-old niece who loved sci-fi. The niece left a review (in our group, obviously) saying she never read forewords until she found the one in Project Hail Mary<\/em> by Andy Weir\u2014his friend, who\u2019s a NASA engineer, talked about how he wrote the book after a work trip, and it made the story feel way more real. That\u2019s the stuff I care about, not just checking a box for \u201cforeword included.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, let\u2019s address the exceptions, because there always are. A small subset of books in our series never have forewords, and that\u2019s intentional. First, really short books\u2014we don\u2019t want to add a foreword that would make the book\u2019s total page count longer than necessary. For example, our copy of The Tao of Pooh<\/em> has 128 pages total, so we skip the foreword to keep it tight. Second, some indie-published books\u2014small presses rarely have the budget for a foreword, so we don\u2019t add a random one just to check a box. I\u2019d rather have a honest, no-frills book than a fake, thrown-together foreword that no one cares about. Third, a lot of poetry collections\u2014forewords for poetry are usually the worst, just a critic rambling about the author\u2019s life, not talking about the poems. We\u2019ve had so many members say they skip poetry forewords, so we just leave them out.<\/p>\n

Wait, I also get a lot of people asking if we add forewords ourselves, if the original book doesn\u2019t have one. The answer is no. I never wanted to mess with the original text of a book. That\u2019s a line I won\u2019t cross. Part of the reason our Book-style Box Series works is that every book is the exact original edition (well, mostly original\u2014sometimes we use reprints with matching covers) with no edits, no added content that the publisher didn\u2019t approve. Adding a foreword would change that, and I think that\u2019s important. If you want a book with a specific foreword, you can find it on your own, but our boxes are for the book as it was meant to be, plus that little curatorial touch of choosing which books to include in the first place.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s talk about recent changes, too. This year, after our group survey last quarter (we sent out a 5-minute survey, like, who has time for longer?), 68% of members said they cared more about forewords than they did two years ago. So I made a call: for all 2024 Book-style Box Series titles, we\u2019re prioritizing books that have a foreword\u2014either original, or a newly added one from the publisher. That\u2019s why our Spring 2024 box, which includes The Poet X<\/em> and The Night Circus<\/em>, both have forewords by the authors (wait, The Night Circus<\/em> has a foreword by Erin Morgenstern\u2019s friend, yes, that\u2019s the one people love, not the old dust jacket blurb). I even worked with a few of our republishers to track down older editions that have better forewords, instead of just using the latest edition. For example, the 2015 edition of The Great Gatsby<\/em> we\u2019re using in our upcoming Summer 2024 box has a foreword from F. Scott Fitzgerald\u2019s granddaughter, which is way better than the generic one in the 2020 reprint.<\/p>\n

I know a lot of suppliers would just give you a generic answer\u2014\u201cit varies\u201d or \u201csome do, some don\u2019t\u201d\u2014but I like to be honest with you. This isn\u2019t a corporate line; this is what I\u2019ve learned from 12 years of listening to customers, scrolling through our group, and opening boxes at 1 a.m. when I should be sleeping. The Book-style Box Series isn\u2019t about selling a fancy box\u2014it\u2019s about giving people books they\u2019ll actually care about, and small details like forewords add up. They turn a book on a shelf into a conversation starter, a gift that feels thought out, even a book that someone will reread because of that one extra page.<\/p>\n

Wait, also, let\u2019s clear up a myth: some people think forewords are just for old books, but that\u2019s not true. We had a member last month who said she read the foreword in our 2023 copy of Lessons in Chemistry<\/em> by Bonnie Garmus, where she talked about how she wrote the book after quitting her job to raise her daughter, and it made the book hit way harder. That\u2019s a contemporary foreword, and it\u2019s exactly the kind of thing we want. We\u2019re not stuck in the past with our classic reprints; we\u2019re keeping up with what readers actually want.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re reading this and you\u2019re someone who\u2019s been on the fence about ordering a Book-style Box Series, or if you\u2019re a returning customer who\u2019s noticed the foreword change over the years, that\u2019s all part of the process. I don\u2019t have all the answers, and I change things when our customers tell me they want something different. That\u2019s why we started the group, that\u2019s why we do quarterly surveys, that\u2019s why I still check my personal DMs at 8 p.m. after a long day of packing boxes. This isn\u2019t a job for me\u2014it\u2019s a thing I do because I love books, and I love seeing people connect with them.<\/p>\n

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If you have more questions, or if you\u2019re ready to place a wholesale order for your store, don\u2019t hesitate to reach out. I\u2019m here to answer any question, whether it\u2019s about forewords, cover colors, or where we source our books from. We can walk through the series, pick the right boxes for your needs, and make sure you get exactly what you\u2019re looking for. No sales team, no confusing contracts, just someone who knows the Book-style Box Series inside and out, ready to help.<\/p>\n

Flip-top Gift Box Series<\/a> References:<\/p>\n

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  1. 2023 Book-style Box Series Customer Feedback Survey<\/li>\n
  2. Publishers Weekly 2022 Report on Foreword Trends in Trade Books<\/li>\n
  3. Internal Sales Data: Book-style Box Series Foreword Inclusion Rates, 2012-2024<\/li>\n
  4. Facebook Book-style Box Series Community Forum, Member Discussions, 2020-2024<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    \n

    Zhengzhou Lingpao Packaging Products Co., Ltd.<\/a>
    As one of the most professional book-style box manufacturers and suppliers in China, we’re featured by quality products and good service. Please rest assured to wholesale customized book-style box made in China here from our factory. Contact us for quotation and free sample.
    Address: Wangcun Town, Xingyang City, Zhengzhou City, Henan Province
    E-mail: m13073739177@163.com
    WebSite:     https:\/\/www.lingpaopackaging.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    If you\u2019ve ever ordered a Book-style Box Series from me, you\u2019ve probably rifled through the contents … Do the books in the Book – style Box Series have a foreword?<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":3561,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3524],"class_list":["post-3561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry","tag-book-style-box-series-400c-3c6a47"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.outscalmail.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.outscalmail.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.outscalmail.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.outscalmail.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/46"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.outscalmail.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.outscalmail.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.outscalmail.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.outscalmail.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.outscalmail.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.outscalmail.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}