Why Do Publishers Do This?

Have you ordered a book, or been in a bookstore and picked up a brand new novel, only to find the pages look like this?:

JaggedPages1

You see that copy of Shirley Jackson’s LET ME TELL YOU? See the pages on the side, how they’re all rough and uneven? Here’s a close-up in case you can’t quite see what I mean:

JaggedPages2

This was not on the discount rack in some podunky, rag-tag, off-the-back-of-a-truck warehouse store. This was on the “New” shelf of our Barnes and Noble. The copies behind it were all the same. It’s not just B&N either; I’ve had new books from Amazon that were like this. Look at this copy of Carolina De Robertis’ THE GODS OF TANGO on a different shelf:

JaggedPages3

Same rough, uneven pages. I know I could probably return a book in this condition, but if all the books on the shelf have the same problem, what are the chances they’ll find me a “clean” copy? Might they all be like that? Would I have to wait for a second edition, or the paperback edition, to get one that looks good?

While this apparent carelessness does grate on my sensibilities, often I’ll just sigh and take the book anyway (after all, it’s the content that matters, right?). But it makes me wonder why publishers will let books go out on the shelf like this. How much control do they have over the quality of the end product? It certainly doesn’t reflect well on them.

If you have any insight into what’s going on here, please let me, and others who are curious, know!

UPDATE: See Heidi Kneale’s reply for an answer. Do you like this “deckle edge?”

cds

Colin D. Smith, writer of blogs and fiction of various sizes.

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8 Responses

  1. I feel like I knew the answer to this once ^^; It might be something to do with giving the book a more ‘authentic’ look by having the paper look like it’s been cut by hand rather than a modern machine.

  2. I’ve never seen a book like this (thank goodness!). On occasion I have had a book where 1 (as in singular) page hasn’t quite been cut correctly, but I can forgive that. The books you’ve shown though… ugh. I hope it isn’t a new trend, and if it is, I hope it doesn’t make it to Oz =)

  3. I wonder if it has something to do with how the book is bound and that process.

    • cds says:

      I wonder that too, Patricia, though I hope not. I’d like to think publishers take more care over book quality, especially for new titles. Though I fear in the rush to get titles out, standards might slip.

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