There was a period where Peter David was using "'Tis enough, 'twould serve" regularly enough that I was ready to tear my hair out every time I saw it. It made me twitch a little writing it out just now.
Author Habits That Annoy You
- Thread starter Captain Dax
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Is that the book-series that begins in - I think - Berlin? Then I have them - funnily enough, in Germany it's just a two-parter. Don't ask me, why.You'd be right at home in book one of @Greg Cox 's Khan trilogy .
To avoid confusion, The Eugenics Wars books were indeed a two-parter, followed by third volume relating Khan's years of exile on Ceti Alpha V.
Resulting in a trilogy consisting of The Eugenics Wars (Volumes One and Two) and To Reign in Hell.
Why do books start on the seventh numbered page instead of the first?
I think that would count more as an editor or publisher habit, rather than a writing one. Though a guess on my entirely-amateur part would be that things like a title page and a publication page count towards the final page count, because they are a part of the publication itself, even if not a part of the work proper - any printing of the book would include these things.
Again, just me guessing without any knowledge, so I will freely stand corrected.
I've seen some books where the page numbering starts on the first page of the story, and others where it starts on the first page of the front material (title page, copyright page, etc.). I guess it comes down to house style. The format of the final book is not the writer's department, except in self-published books.
There's a small press I otherwise like but they number every page, including the title and copyright pages, starting from 1 and going up. It (I guess irrationally) annoys me. I'm like, "have you guys ever looked at another book? no one does that!"
Some number pages prior to the story's beginning with Roman numerals.
Author habits that annoy me, eh? Let me see….
It drives me crazy when Kevin Dilmore tries to do a British accent. He’s just awful at it.
I can't stand the way David R. George III parallel parks. Takes him bloody forever.
If I never again have to watch Greg Cox separate all the foods on his plate so that they don't touch, it’ll be too soon.
No matter how many times I tell him it's not funny, Michael Jan Friedman insists on putting plastic wrap over the toilet bowls at conventions.
We try not to give him the satisfaction of seeing us react, but I wish John Jackson Miller would stop farting during panels. He’s the master of “silent but deadly,” like some sort of U-boat commander of flatulence.
Somehow, at conventions, Dayton Ward always knows which mornings I’ll be hung over, and, despite my best efforts at stopping him, he gets into my hotel room at 5:15AM with a trash can lid and a ladle to wake me with his Marine Corps drill instructor persona.
And goddamn, don't get me started on Kirsten Beyer and possums. When she — no, I’ve already said too much.
…What? Was that not the point of this thread? Sorry, my bad.
It drives me crazy when Kevin Dilmore tries to do a British accent. He’s just awful at it.
I can't stand the way David R. George III parallel parks. Takes him bloody forever.
If I never again have to watch Greg Cox separate all the foods on his plate so that they don't touch, it’ll be too soon.
No matter how many times I tell him it's not funny, Michael Jan Friedman insists on putting plastic wrap over the toilet bowls at conventions.
We try not to give him the satisfaction of seeing us react, but I wish John Jackson Miller would stop farting during panels. He’s the master of “silent but deadly,” like some sort of U-boat commander of flatulence.
Somehow, at conventions, Dayton Ward always knows which mornings I’ll be hung over, and, despite my best efforts at stopping him, he gets into my hotel room at 5:15AM with a trash can lid and a ladle to wake me with his Marine Corps drill instructor persona.
And goddamn, don't get me started on Kirsten Beyer and possums. When she — no, I’ve already said too much.
…What? Was that not the point of this thread? Sorry, my bad.
But not consistently.
TWOK: Starts page #7, counts all previous pages.
TVH: Starts page #1, does not count previous pages.
Though my copies of these books are from two different publishers.
So I grabbed some of my DS9 novelizations from Pocket Books U.S.
Emissary. Starts on page #1. Does not count previous pages.
The Search. Starts on page #1. Does not count previous pages.
The Way of the Warrior. Starts on page #3. But there are more previous pages than that. So it counts only some of them?
Maybe it's psychological? If you start on page 7, you feel like you've already made progress, which encourages you to keep going.
That is weird, maybe it the policy about it changed as editors or whoever is in charge of that kind of stuff changed?
I don’t think this is specific to one author, my the only (minor) gripe I have with TrekLit is the over-reliance of describing a character’s jaw when things get tense.
“Kira set her jaw firmly”
“Worf squared his jaw as he gripped his bat’leth”
“Sisko betrayed no emotion other than the tension in his jaw”
This literary jaw fetish seems confined to Trek as far as I can tell?!
And on a separate note, thank you to all the Trek authors on this site for the many hours of reading material I have enjoyed because of you all. Currently on Armageddon’s Arrow so thank you Mr. Ward!
“Kira set her jaw firmly”
“Worf squared his jaw as he gripped his bat’leth”
“Sisko betrayed no emotion other than the tension in his jaw”
This literary jaw fetish seems confined to Trek as far as I can tell?!
And on a separate note, thank you to all the Trek authors on this site for the many hours of reading material I have enjoyed because of you all. Currently on Armageddon’s Arrow so thank you Mr. Ward!
I did some quick looking around online, and the consensus seems to be that the front matter (the pages before the main body of the book) should not be counted in the main page numbering. However, a quick sampling of various books on my shelves shows that there seems to be no uniform standard; some books include the front matter in the numbering, others don't. It seems to be independent of era and publisher. Startlingly, the hardcover edition of my novel Only Superhuman includes the front matter and starts Chapter 1 on page 11, while the paperback edition of Only Superhuman excludes the front matter and starts Chapter 1 on page 1.
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