In a book, a title page is a page that shows the title of the book and the author’s name, and possibly also some other decoration or artwork.
It’s important to distinguish between the title page of a book and the half title page (also called the bastard title page). The half title page is usually the very first page of the book, and contains just the title – not the author’s name. It is usually a very plain page, with no decoration. The title page usually appears a few pages after the half title page – it is the ‘full’ title page – a proper introduction to the book – containing both the title of the book and the author’s name, as well as, perhaps, other decoration or designs.
Both the half title page and the title page are part of the front matter of a book – that is, the stuff in the book that appears before the main content (which, for a novel, is the actual chapters and text of the story).
The title page usually includes both the title of the book and the author’s name, but it’s also a chance to really show off – to properly ‘present’ the book to the reader. You could include any number of additional graphical elements: borders, symbols, monograms – you could even make the whole page a decorated page.
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