Hawkou8 Wrote:....Should have just written a little more....
Blake Wrote:....Or worse: "Thirsty from all this reading? Why not enjoy a nice, refreshing Coke?"....
Blake
fpw Wrote:I don't see your point. You think you would have saved a buck if there'd been fewer leaves?
Maybe you'd be less pissed if you knew something about bookbinding.
I don't know a helluva lot myself, but I'll share what little I do.
A book is constructed of folds called signatures. A signature is a large sheet of paper printed back and front with multiple pages in various orientations so that when it is folded in half X number of times, all the leaves wind up right side up and in proper order. Common in book binding these days is the octavo which is folded in half 3 times to yield 8 leaves (which when numbered yield 16 pages).
Infernal has 22 octavo signatures. Multiply that by 16 and you've got 352.
Now, it's a rare manuscript that typesets out to a number of pages perfectly divisible by 16. This leaves publishers 2 options.
The 1st: simply leave a bunch of blank pages at the end.
2nd: arrange type size and layout to make the pages fill out the last signature to the end. This can involve compression or expansion. Expansion commonly involves "killing" a page (leaving it blank) before the start of a new chapter; sometimes margins are fudged. Publishers much prefer contraction to expansion because fewer signatures mean lower unit cost. But hardcover buyers don't like small type, so publishers are often left with expansion.
The publisher expanded Infernal so that the last printed page would be #351 out of a possible 352.
Numbering is traditionally started on the first leaf after the front endpaper, which is why the body text of most books starts on page 11 or 13.
You weren't gypped, you were simply spared a pile of blank pages at the end.
If anyone knows more (like Rakosh, I'm sure), please chime in.
Maggers Wrote:Welcome to the board Hawkou8.
I'm curious. What more would you have FPW write? Words just to fill blank pages? I've read all of his books at least twice, many three times, and I've yet to see a single paragraph that I would consider filler, i.e., material that doesn't advance the plot or that isn't meaningful in some fashion. That's one of the things I like most about FPW's writing; it's trim, to the point, gets you where he wants you to be efficiently and effectively.
For example, and this is just my opinion, I much prefer FPW's writing style to Stephen King's. I'm a fan of King's earlier works, but from "Christine" onward, I kept thinking "where's his editor???" I don't know that I would consider King's verbiage to be merely filler, but I do find alot of it unnecessary.
In any case, I can't imagine that either Wilson or King would write with page counts in mind.
Glad to see that you enjoyed "Infernal" nevertheless.
fpw Wrote:I don't see your point. You think you would have saved a buck if there'd been fewer leaves?
Maybe you'd be less pissed if you knew something about bookbinding.
I don't know a helluva lot myself, but I'll share what little I do.
A book is constructed of folds called signatures. A signature is a large sheet of paper printed back and front with multiple pages in various orientations so that when it is folded in half X number of times, all the leaves wind up right side up and in proper order. Common in book binding these days is the octavo which is folded in half 3 times to yield 8 leaves (which when numbered yield 16 pages).
Infernal has 22 octavo signatures. Multiply that by 16 and you've got 352.
Now, it's a rare manuscript that typesets out to a number of pages perfectly divisible by 16. This leaves publishers 2 options.
The 1st: simply leave a bunch of blank pages at the end.
2nd: arrange type size and layout to make the pages fill out the last signature to the end. This can involve compression or expansion. Expansion commonly involves "killing" a page (leaving it blank) before the start of a new chapter; sometimes margins are fudged. Publishers much prefer contraction to expansion because fewer signatures mean lower unit cost. But hardcover buyers don't like small type, so publishers are often left with expansion.
The publisher expanded Infernal so that the last printed page would be #351 out of a possible 352.
Numbering is traditionally started on the first leaf after the front endpaper, which is why the body text of most books starts on page 11 or 13.
You weren't gypped, you were simply spared a pile of blank pages at the end.
If anyone knows more (like Rakosh, I'm sure), please chime in.
Hawkou8 Wrote:Infernal is a gr8 read but be advised that out of 351 pages the text starts on page 11 and at least 24 pages(got tired of counting) which are included in the page count are blank or may have only one word on the page. Should have just written a little more. Still a great book!
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Hawkou8 Wrote:I don't in anyway think I got gypped it was a gr8 book and I am a fan. Just lusting after a longer book. Anyway thanks for the lesson on printing.