Last night thumbing through my books I landed on (how nerdy is this) the copywrite page of my 80's softcover BSP copy of Post Office. When I read that it was the 38th printing from 1989 a lightbulb went off over my head.
My hardcover copy of Post Office is a fortieth printing from 1991 and I'd always been blown away that BSP did FORTY hardback printings of Post Office.
Realizing that the 38th print from 1989 and the 40th print from 1991 were operating within the same print line kind of surprised me as one is PB and one is HC. In my experience, the print lines tend to be distinct for hard and soft editions, though I could see how a small press would keep them together.
Anyway, I'm curious if anyone knows anything about this. Am I nuts? Was there a system? Every tenth printing was in hardback, etc? Or was it more like, when the hardbacks ran out, they'd do the next print run as a hardback?
Thanks!
My hardcover copy of Post Office is a fortieth printing from 1991 and I'd always been blown away that BSP did FORTY hardback printings of Post Office.
Realizing that the 38th print from 1989 and the 40th print from 1991 were operating within the same print line kind of surprised me as one is PB and one is HC. In my experience, the print lines tend to be distinct for hard and soft editions, though I could see how a small press would keep them together.
Anyway, I'm curious if anyone knows anything about this. Am I nuts? Was there a system? Every tenth printing was in hardback, etc? Or was it more like, when the hardbacks ran out, they'd do the next print run as a hardback?
Thanks!