Or, “The Great T-of-C Blunder in Spark, Volume IV.”

Most contributors and early purchasers have now received their copy of Spark: A Creative Anthology, Volume IV, and while many start right at the foreword by Kevin J. Anderson and read straight through to the end, others are looking for a specific story and want to skip to it. So they open the Table of Contents, find the page number for the piece they’re looking for, and flip to that page.

And it’s not there. Or, rather it’s almost there, but a few pages away from where the Table of Contents said it would be.

What happened? Who moved the cheese? Well, at the last minute, after proofreading and editing by a group of readers even more attentive to detail than I am, I accidentally unticked the little box on the first content page that says “Start Numbering at 1.” I’m not sure exactly when or how, but I know that’s what happened.

Before printing, all the page numbers in the entire linked book get updated automatically. A table of contents page … doesn’t. So if you’re looking for the foreword, the TOC says it’s on page 1, but it’s actually on page 7. Want to read “Scarlet, Crimson, Red” by Sadie Bruce? Of course you do! Table of Contents says page 426. It’s actually on page 432.

Now, this mix-up only applies to the first print run. It’s easy to correct, and the page numbers have been reset for the second (and subsequent) printings: if the Table of Contents says the Foreword starts on page 1, by golly you can bet that it starts on page 1.

If you are lucky enough to have a first-printing copy of Volume IV, I’ve provided this handy cross-reference to the page numbers as they appear in your book.

Happy Reading,
— Brian Lewis