Happy Leap Day!
Since this is an “extra” day I thought I’d provide a couple bits of trivia for you.
Did you know? …
When you open a physical book you have two pages. The left and the right. Those pages actually have names! verso and recto. Verso is the left hand page and Recto is the right hand page. This is commonly talked about in publishing production when communicating with a typesetter.
Printed books always begin on the Recto (right) page. Most non-fiction continues this with every chapter. But fiction has the freedom to start a new chapter on the verso page.
The title page is always recto.
The copyright page is always directly after that … verso.
The page number begins with recto. Since recto is always page one, your odd number pages should always be on the right hand side. I often see self published books that don’t do this. A sign of someone who doesn’t know the conventions of book printing.
____________
The last “letter” in the alphabet used to be “and.” Back in the old days you recited the alphabet and ended it with “and, per se, and.” This was later corrupted into the term “ampersand” and the symbol (&) we use today to indicate the word “and.” (To the right is a picture from an 1863 textbook showing the last “letter” of the alphabet.”)
