Publishing Vocabulary 102

Main Entry: book*map
Function: noun
Etymology : Middle English, from Old English boc; akin to Old High German buoh book, Gothic boka letter; Medieval Latin mappa, from Latin, napkin, towel
1 : the map of a book; summarizes the content of the book, page by page.

Main Entry: sig*na*ture
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle French or Medieval Latin; Middle French, from Medieval Latin signatura, from Latin signatus, past participle of signare to sign, seal
1 : A large sheet printed with imposed pages so that, when folded, pages will run consecutively; usually comprised of 8, 16, or 32 pages

While the relationship between these two terms might seem tenuous to the untrained eye, they nevertheless share a very special connection. Similar to human relationships, the importance of this connection is often taken for granted and only realized when a disagreement happens. In the worst cases, the result is not unlike a highway collision, crashing so loudly that the world of publishing, for a moment, comes to a screeching halt to rubberneck and check out the damage.

Since most people find analogies to be useful, let me use one here. The pages of a book are like pennies, “cents” which add up to a certain dollar amount for the entire book. Imagine all of these pennies add up to $10.21. So, you pull out your wallet to pay for the book. Ah, but then you realize that you only have quarters. No pennies, no nickels, no dollars, only quarters. How many quarters do you need? You need 41 quarters, which adds up to $10.25. “But Erin!” you might protest. “That’s more than $10.21!! I don’t need that much—you’re ripping me off!” But of course, you know that’s not really true, because I would owe you 4 cents in change. If the “cents” are the individual pages in the book, then the quarters are the signatures. So, if I were to add five pages to the book, boosting the price to $10.26, that would mean that you’d need to give me another quarter to cover the extra five cents. Because you have to pay me (whether you like it or not) in twenty-five cent increments. And if I only have pennies to give you for change, that would mean that you’re getting a nice handful of pennies back (24 pennies, to be exact).

In keeping with this analogy, a bookmap is kind of like your itemized receipt for the book, accounting for every single penny, including those 24 “extra” ones I’m giving you back as change. If this receipt doesn’t indicate a dollar amount that is a multiple of $0.25, then there’s a problem. If someone decides at the last minute to alter the number of pages going into the book, but forgets about the whole increment thing, everything is thrown out of whack.

Moral of the story: remember that bookmaps and signatures love each other. They may seem indifferent to one another, but remember that their relationship is not to be neglected. They might need a little help with this—it’s a good idea to encourage them to pick up the phone every once in awhile and check in with each other. Chat about the weather, the latest neighborhood gossip, etc. Because, remember, if they get too out of touch, you might get hit by some shrapnel when they finally do collide and have one of those wake-the-whole-neighborhood fights. And no one wants that.