It could be that I’m the only person who didn’t know this already, but last week I learned what some of the codes on the copyright page of a book mean.
A friend of my husband’s, who happened to be a lawyer, sent him a message saying he’d purchased a paperback copy of The Eighth Day and was pleased to notice that it was printed by one of his clients, a printing company in central Pennsylvania. Bob asked how he could tell and got a brief lesson on some of the codes.
The OPM in the middle of that line is the code for the printing company. On the left, the smallest number represents the year the book was printed (2015), and on the right, the smallest number represents the print run. This book happens to be from the 4th print run of the paperback copy of The Eighth Day.
We compared this to an older copy on my bookshelf. Can you read the code?
Yup, this is from the 1st print run of TED, which was printed in 2014 even though it wasn’t released until January 2015.
Of course I had to check out a copy of The Caged Graves, too, although it was printed by a different company and the coding was slightly different.
I can tell this copy came from the 2nd print run, but I don’t know where they hide the year.
Did you already know this? Do you have any secret codes of your own to share?
I totally didn’t know this. Now I learned something new too. Thanks.
I didn’t know that, but it’s totally cool!
Had no clue but glad I know now! Thanks 🙂
Nope, didn’t know this. But now, I’ll be checking it out in every book I read. Interesting.
You learn something new every day 🙂 What year was Caged Graves printed? Maybe it was in the 2012021008 number?
I learned something new as well!
I’m 100% smarter about that code now than I was before reading your post! Very interesting.
Huh, I never knew that. The letters kind of make sense but I wonder what all the numbers are for.
Nope, I didn’t know it, either. Looks like you taught us all something new. Once a teacher, always a teacher.
I never knew this myself. Cool!
Hi Dianne .. so interesting to read about … cheers Hilary
I didn’t know about the year, but I did know about the print number. I only know this because I’m pleased to own some first editions of some of my favorite books. ^_^ One of them is the author’s first-ever hardcover, and I got that one signed.
Oooh, secret codes! I can never get enough of those. Makes you wonder what else those publishers are hiding from us. 🙂
And now I’ve learned something new as well. Thanks! This is pretty cool.
Well, now, I’m going to be looking for this in every book I own and open from now on! Thanks for the tip!
I didn’t know this. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
It’s always nice to learn something new!