By Rachel Matthews
Summer 2017 Intern
Picture this: you’re nearing the
conclusion of a thrilling book, and you can feel three pages left in your
fingers. But the ending comes more abruptly than you thought—the last two pages
are blank!
I used to wonder how those extra
pages ended up in my books. But PSG staff members Alyssa and Don clued me in on
an alternative definition of the word signature
that is little-known outside of the publishing world.
I had no idea that the book pages I
see are not printed individually, but in sets called signatures. Since these
signatures tend to be 16, 32 or 64 pages each, a book needs to be planned out
accordingly. Any unfilled pages in the last signature will still be included in
the final product—which finally explains the mystery at the end of my
thrillers!
Now that I know that, I understand
why I sometimes see advertisements at the end of my books. And if content can’t
be reworked to fill the signature, I can definitely see why the best option is
to end with a blank page or two.
I feel better knowing the whole
story—and that’s just one of the many industry insights I’ve gotten from PSG!
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