Proof Reading 'Sibling Poets' and Getting Those Pages Right

Communication is an art fraught with difficulties. You think you have made things as clear as that unspoilt stream high in the New Zealand mountains. Turns out, you haven't.

Working on the latest book 'Sibling Poets' with big brother Jonathan, this has happened to both of us. After sending the original text and layout, we discover that for some reason our publisher - a very experienced and well thought of publishing house - has attached what we intended as the first page to the introduction. Several emails later, we accept a compromise. 

I will attempt to explain. Our book is a collection of fifty poems, in pairs, one by yours truly and the other by big brother. Each pair of poems is preceded by a short piece of text introducing and explaining how these poems fit with the story of our lives. It is arranged in chronological order. Thus we needed a short piece of text before the first pair of poems that was not part of the introduction. 

Publishing convention is that page one is always but always on the right hand side and that there are no blank right hand pages at the beginning of the book (and possibly later, before anyone corrects me).

Our first poem is on page one. On the right hand side, obviously, see above. So is the text page -1? Hmmm, no. It simply floats opposite the poem. As the index contains only the poems, the problem is solved.