There's a whole lot of white space in my copy of The Guards. It struck me as
soon as I opened the book. The leading (the space between lines of text on a
page) is huge. I figure the publisher was trying to get a small paperback
number of pages into one of those unnecessary plus-size paperbacks. I think
the idea is that if the book is bigger and thicker you think you're getting
more for your money. Like with quilted toilet paper. There's less paper on
the roll, but it looks bigger, so people don't notice.
On Sun, Nov 2, 2008 at 10:07 AM, <DJ-Anonyme@webtv.net> wrote:
> Stacy wrote:
>
> "I just started this and it looks like it will be a super fast read -
> there's a lot of white space on the pages, if you know what I mean. But
> so far, so good."
>
> I picked it up yesterday. I haven't started it, but was struck by the
> same thing when flipping through it: full pages for his chapter dividing
> epigraphs, huge gulfs between paragraphs, etc. Its printing is so
> sparse, it makes Robert B Parker's pages look covered with ink. It
> could have easily been printed in half the pages.
>
> Why do publishers do this? Because they think readers want more pages
> for their dollars? Do they really think readers won't notice all of the
> blank space? I have no problem with a short book if it tells a good
> story. Would prefer a tight read to one with padding (not even hinting
> that all long books are padded: Rankin, for one, needs all of his pages
> for his stories).
>
> Mark
>
>
>
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