Those Funny Numbers
Ever wonder what those numbers on a title page mean?
Here’s what my editor told me:
The numbers on the left are the printings of the book. Each time there’s a reprint, we delete a number. The numbers on the right are the year.
So, for the 2nd printing in 2012, it would look like
2 3 4 5 6 – 16 15 14 13 12
Other houses treat this differently, but this is how Tricycle always did it and apparently Random House Children’s Books as well.
Interesting, huh?
And so I just had to look in a few books right here on my desk.
Thanks Caroline, I learn something new everyday.
Huh. That IS interesting. :)
And here I was thinking they just liked to put numbers on the front page to make it look more ‘booky’ :)))
Thank you for your comment on my blog.
How interesting! So fun to learn the inside information. :)
You learn something new every day! Thanks!
Hmmmm…very interesting! :-)
Another mystery solved! My husband was asking me about this just the other day! :)
That is interesting. Never knew what those numbers meant.
Frustratingly, almost every publishing house does it differently, but they’re all variations on a theme. So yes, if the 1 is gone, it’s probably the 2nd printing. But the numbers might go up or down, might include teens or just 1-10, or 0-9, etc. If you can think of another permutation, it’s probably been done.
I was excited to learn this new factoid (thank you for sharing)…and then Carin made my head explode. ;)
I love that you taught me something today.
Happy Monday,
Lola
I’m glad you spilled the beans on that one…I had no idea. :-)
That is interesting.
I often wondered what those numbers meant!