Monday, October 23, 2017

[Self-Publishing] The Phenomena of the Blank Page


Having blank pages in a book can seem really weird at times, but its not something that we think about that often.  Buy or borrow any hardcover or paperback and you'll stumble across blank pages in the front or back of the book.

Why is this? You might ask.

According to publishers it's to do with signatures, which is just industry spiel for groups of pages that printers cut to assemble a book.  You can have as many as four blank pages.  If the manuscript it 200 pages it may be a perfect fit.  An uneven number like 203 means there's more likely to be pages leftover from the signatures.

Design Observation

Many book designers will offset this expense by playing around with character spacing.  This is called kerning, by simply reducing the space between two specific characters throughout a book, can add up to an entire saved page.

Filling in the space

Many publishers prefer to fill that unused space with checklists of the author's work, portions from other books, illustrations.  Non-fiction publications such as manuals and textbooks may add the phrase "This page is intentionally left blank", to alert the reader that they're not missing any necessary information.

Some author's request blank pages in their books, to keep in line with tradition.

Read more about writing: Publishing a Book: A Quick Examination of Self-Publishing and PublishingWhat is DRM? How Does it Work?The Fast Guide to Publishing Your Book with Createspace[Self-Publishing] Selecting a Font for Your Book[Self-Publishing] Selecting a Book SizeThings to Do Before You Self-Publish Your Ebook.

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