Book dedication examples for your mom
The best dedications to a mother point at something she did, often years before the book existed: the library trips, the bedtime stories, and the faith that you would finish. Below are examples sorted by tone. Choose one to see it on the page, or write your own.
By the Proselis team · Updated
Short dedications to your mom
For Mom.
For my mother, who taught me to read.
To Mom, my first editor.
For Mom, always.
Heartfelt dedications to your mom
For my mother, who filled our house with books and never once told me to stop reading at the table.
To Mom, who drove me to every library in the county and waited in the car.
For my mother, who said I could. This is me proving her right.
To Mom, who read me the same bedtime story four hundred times without complaint.
For my mother, who kept every story I wrote in a shoebox under her bed.
To Mom, whose voice I still hear when I read a sentence out loud.
Funny dedications to your mom
For Mom, who will tell everyone she knows about this book. Please buy it, Mom’s friends.
To my mother, who would like it known that she always said I was the creative one.
For Mom. Chapter seven is not about you.
For Mom, who has already ordered twelve copies and has opinions about the cover.
Dedications to your mom for a first book
These suit a debut, when she was there from the very start.
For Mom, who bought my first notebook and never asked to read it.
For my mother, who knew I would write a book long before I did.
How do you write a dedication to your mom?
Think about what she did that led to this book, even if it happened decades ago. A dedication that hints at a story, such as library trips or a shelf of hand-me-down paperbacks, says more than “thank you for everything.”
Mom, Mother, or her name?
Use what you call her. “For Mom” is warm and the most common. “To my mother” is a little more formal, and adding her first name helps readers who don’t know her.
Where does the dedication go?
In a printed book, the dedication gets its own right-hand page after the copyright page, usually centered about a third of the way down. Some books share that page with the epigraph. In an ebook, it comes right after the copyright page.
How long should a dedication be?
Most are one or two lines. Anything longer usually belongs in the acknowledgments at the back, where you can thank everyone by name.
Questions
Can I dedicate a book to my mom and dad together?
Yes. “For Mom and Dad” is classic, and “To my parents” works when the book owes something to both of them. The page of dedications for your parents has more examples.
What if my mom has died?
Begin with “In memory of” or “For,” and add one detail about who she was. The page of dedications in memory of someone has examples.
Can I dedicate a book to more than one person?
Yes. Name them together, as in “For Maya and Leo,” or give each person a line. If the list grows past three or four names, move your thanks to the acknowledgments.
Do I have to include a dedication?
No. Many books have none. Leave it out if nobody comes to mind, because a forced dedication shows.
Should the dedication be in italics?
It’s common but not required. Most dedications are centered and set in italic or small type so they stand apart from the text.
Give your dedication its own page
Proselis has a dedication page ready in its Front Matter menu, so your dedication lands in the right place in your EPUB and print PDF. Writing is free. Publishing a book as an EPUB and a print-ready PDF is a one-time $20.