Illustration: Bookmobile
This is a slightly sneaky way of saving money. The endpapers (shown in purple in this illustration) which are tipped to the first and last signatures of a hardback are the main way of holding the book block into the case. If you lay out the book so that there are blank leaves at the front and at the back, you can eliminate the endpapers and save the money by just pasting these blank leaves to the boards of the case.
The book will be a little weaker — the endpapers tend to be a heavier, stronger stock — though on the other hand the connection between the self end and the book block is more fundamental — the “endpapers” are part of the first and the last sigs, not just pasted to them.
Obviously using self ends means you can’t use any kind of fancy endpaper, colored as in this illustration, or printed with a useful map or whatever. We didn’t often do it, and when we did it was on smaller books on which last minute cost savings had become necessary.
[…] Of course every now and then, when the budget permits a bit of a flutter, we get a call for fancy ends. The least fancy would be a colored endpaper — Multicolor® is the one that sticks in everyone’s mind. It’s made by FiberMark in 90 shades and various textures (finishes which are embossed into the paper). Personally, though I do quite like many of the colored endpapers, I can’t really see a justification for the expense. I doubt if anyone’s buying decision was ever tipped from “Maybe” to “Yes” by contemplating the colored endpaper. I suppose it might be said to add to the impression that “this is a good book which the publisher cares about”. (If you have to save money, you’ll be looking at self ends.) […]