What's with 256 pages?

[Jeremy]

Obamanomics by Tim Carney

 

[NightOwl]

Peter Schiff, Tom Woods, Judge Napolitano, Jesse Ventura, Sean Hannity... etc... all of their books are 256 pages. Different publishers. At CPAC the Judge also said that the publisher makes him do exactly 256. I get it probably has something to do with sales... but I'm wondering why? Why exactly 256? It's not even like it's a range from 250-260 or something...

Not true, actually. Amazon says they're 256 pages, but not one of those books is 256 pages long (check for yourself). 256 seems to be a default number that publishers put out.

 

[Zippyjuan]

Most printing processes use one that does sixteen pages at a time on a sheet which gets folded and cut so most books should have a multiple of sixteen pages- although not all the pages may have actual printing on them. 256 pages would be sixteen batches of sixteen pages put together.
http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4572296_how-books-manufactured.html

The rolls from the press are typically cut and folded into bundles, typically of 16 pages. Nearly all paperbacks are perfect bound, with the bundles glued together with a cover made of stiffer paper. Hardbounds are usually stitched together at the spine, with "library bound" being especially robust.

In this video from 50 years ago, they printed 64 pages at a time. It was much more tedius just to prepare the plates for each page back then.
YouTube - Making books is fun! (to watch)

 

[Promontorium]

Not true, actually. Amazon says they're 256 pages, but not one of those books is 256 pages long (check for yourself). 256 seems to be a default number that publishers put out.

Crisis averted apparently.

I did find this subject interesting, because I've been noticing 255 floating around a lot.

255 is used in a lot in computer programming using Hexadecimal. It's represented as FF in hex; F being the 15th number, and the last number in the first set of base 16. 256 is then 16 squared, it is 100 in Hex.

 

[Promontorium]

In this video from 50 years ago, they printed 64 pages at a time. It was much more tedius just to prepare the plates for each page back then.
YouTube - Making books is fun! (to watch)

I loled at the beginning. It went right from the writer to the typesetter. This is America. It goes from the writer, to his friends/family, to an agent, to a publisher, to the editor, back to him, back to all the people mentioned and back. Repeat until someone gives up. If it wasn't the writer, then the typesetter might see the book. And of course, it's only that easy if the writer was already published before, with the same players, and was already very successful.

 

[MelissaWV]

Books are going to have a number of pages (actual pages, not numbered pages) divisible by four. Even if you add in, say, an introduction, foreward, bibliography, suggested reading, index, and whatever the hell else, your numbered pages are also likely to be divisible by four, which makes sense if you look at any of these books.

It's not really some grand conspiracy.

If you look at publishing costs, also, you'll see that there are a number of industry standards. Prices often change at 256 filled pages. There are also marks at 160 pages and 352 at a lot of companies. Many companies also have minimum and maximum widths allowable for book spines, which can also dictate the number of pages allowed.

 

[rancher89]

Crisis averted apparently.

I did find this subject interesting, because I've been noticing 255 floating around a lot.

255 is used in a lot in computer programming using Hexadecimal. It's represented as FF in hex; F being the 15th number, and the last number in the first set of base 16. 256 is then 16 squared, it is 100 in Hex.

yeah, I was just going to post that the square root of 256 is 16, which is when you can get your driver's license....