Why Blank

[woodelf]

Has anyone else noticed blank pages in the middle of novels....and why? Ta Muchly.

[Old_Geezer]

Creative block ?

[woodelf]

Not sure I get that OG, but Ta for the answer.

[mccfluff]

not something i recall seeing, at a guess its a printing error

[ummmm]

Is it internet?

[woodelf]

May be a bit more than that Fluffy, but as to what I canner say...yet.

[Barmaid]

It's something to do with printing techniques. Printers print on even numbered pages - I cant remember how precisely it works, but its something to do with chapters traditionally starting on an odd numbered page.

I havent explained this well at all, but I know what I mean.

[Old_Geezer]

The writer must have had a mental block mid-story, could not think what came next in the tale, so you got a blank page there :-)

I suspect there was an odd number of pages or something, and one side was supposed to be cut short so you wouldn't notice it, but it didn't happen.

[Old_Geezer]

Ah, I should write faster :-p

[woodelf]

Many Thanks for that Barmaid and never mind OG, you stuck in there - and Hi to Ummmm too.

[Quizmonkey]

Purely a printer's error. Answers regarding numbers of pages don't work: it's true that they have to be in multiples of 4 or 8 etc, but if that means blank pages these would be placed at the back of the book, not in the middle.

[wolf63]

woodelf

How are you 'seeing' or reading this novel?

[woodelf]

Wolf, I'm not, but a friend has and he wondered why the blank pages in middle of novel - he's not sure now of title, but author was Matt Hilton...but Thanks anyway.

[jno]

it might be just an authorial post-modernist whim - didn't Cloud Atlas occasionally stop in the middle of a sentence?

Or it might be as Barmaid says - this isn't common but on this link you can see a reader complaining about it in another novel (not Matt Hilton)

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/athena-project-brad-thor/1020861600?ean=9781442355620

And here's another:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/raven-strike-dale-brown/1102300517?ean=9780062116765

Maybe this is something new. I'd have said a printing error, though. If it's an e-reader it might be a technical glitch.

[atalanta]

Librarians see this distressingly often. Every sheet of paper which is to become a "gathering" within a book should be printed on both sides before it is folded and cut. Sometimes the print fails on one side of the paper, resulting in what is called an "imperfect copy". Bookshops will readily exchange these imperfect copies for good copies, since the printer has to recompense them. If borrowers see this in a Library book, please tell the Librarians, as the imperfect copy is useless.
Sometimes a gathering is left out or duplicated, or both. Same applies

[woodelf]

Many Thanks jno and atalanta, all this should satisfy my mate.