three ways to tell from the front matter if a book is in trouble

1) There's a prefatory section titled "Forward" (distressingly common)

2) There's a dedication to someone "in memorium" (not often seen in regular books, but a frequent phrase on the back pages of sf convention souvenir books)

3) There's an epigraph from The Faerie Queene by "Herbert Spenser" (I swear, I actually saw this on a library new-book shelf about 20 years ago. I'm only sorry I didn't note the book's title so I could prove it now)