My question deals with the inside page of a book. There is a lot of info about publisher and ISBN # and copyright and then there are some numbers at the bottom that usually look this:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
What do those numbers mean?
Ah, the mysteries of the copyright and print page of a book. These are not questions for us mere mortals, so I asked two of my favorite people in the publishing industry, Matt Wagner of Fresh Books Agency and Joe Wickert of J. Wiley, Publishers.
Perhaps surprisingly, they had the exact same answer: The leftmost number shows you what printing you have.
For example, if you see “1 2 3 4 5″ then you’re holding the first printing of the book. If you see “2 3 4 5″, however, it’s the second, and “4 5″ would be the fourth, etc.
Why this obscure scheme is used is a mystery, but I’m guessing it’s something to do with making it as easy as possible to change the printing info on the page without having to reflow content or other material.
Hope that clarifies what printing of the book you have in your hands!