Chapter one always starts on a right-hand page, and so does every part title. Every other chapter starting on the right is a design choice, not a rule, and it is one that costs you a blank page roughly half the time. Plenty of professionally typeset books let chapters two onward begin wherever they fall.
A right-hand page is called a recto and always carries an odd page number. A left-hand page is a verso and always carries an even one. See recto and verso explained if that pairing is new to you.
What Is Actually Obligatory
New Hart's Rules is precise about where the requirement stops: "The main text always begins on a recto, and in a book divided into parts (Part I, Part II, etc.) a new part begins on a fresh recto, even though the preceding page may be blank."
That covers two things: the start of the text, and part titles. For ordinary chapters it says the opposite of what most guides claim: "New chapters are usually allowed to begin on either a verso or a recto." It then adds the hedge that matters, that "the design of a book may require that a new chapter begin on a fresh recto." A design may require it. Nothing requires it of you.
Two other sources agree independently. Princeton University Press specifies that the text "starts on right-hand page numbered 1" while "subsequent chapters can start on right- or left-hand page." Amazon's own formatting guidance says chapter one starts on a right-facing page while subsequent chapters "start on the next available page."
So the rule is narrower than its reputation. If you have seen it stated as an absolute, that came from a house style rather than from a standard.
Why the Convention Exists at All
A recto is the more prominent half of a spread. It is the page the reader turns to, and it carries the odd number. New Hart's Rules puts it plainly: "The recto is regarded as the 'more important' of the two pages of a spread." Opening a chapter there gives it a clean, uninterrupted start rather than burying it at the bottom of a left-hand page facing the end of the previous chapter.
The cost is blank pages. If a chapter happens to end on a recto, forcing the next chapter onto the following recto leaves the intervening verso empty. Over a thirty-chapter novel that is on the order of fifteen blank leaves, which is real paper, real spine width and real print cost.
That trade is exactly why the convention is applied to parts, where there are few of them and the emphasis is worth it, but left optional for chapters.
Blank Pages Are Not Errors
A blank verso produced this way is correct typesetting, not a mistake. It carries no running head and no page number, though it is still counted in the pagination. It is one of two reasons books contain blank pages. New Hart's Rules confirms the general principle: "All pages are counted in the pagination sequence, but the folio is not shown on some pages", and lists blank pages among them.
Do not try to fix them by padding the end of the book either. IngramSpark's user guide asks publishers to "end the text of their book without padding blank pages", because all text files are stored "with a page count that is divisible by two" and the printer reserves the last page for its own manufacturing information.
Doing This in Deckle
Deckle has a Start chapters on right-hand page toggle in Advanced print settings. With it on, every chapter opens on a recto and blank versos are inserted where needed. With it off, chapter one still opens on a recto and the rest run on to the next available page, which is the more economical setting and, per the sources above, equally correct.
Two related behaviours are worth knowing. Any blank page Deckle inserts to push a chapter onto a recto is left completely bare, with no running head and no page number, which is the correct treatment. And the toggle is independent of roman numbering in the front matter, so you can restart numbering at chapter one without forcing every chapter to the right.
Which you want depends on the book. A hardback literary novel earns the blank pages. A 400-page paperback where print cost matters usually does not.
Common Mistakes
- Believing every chapter must open on a recto. Only part titles and the first page of the text are obligatory.
- Treating the inserted blank pages as a bug. They are the intended consequence, and they should carry no header or folio.
- Padding the end of the book to round out the page count. Print-on-demand services do this themselves and ask you not to.
- Assuming the setting affects ebooks. Reflowable formats have no fixed pages, so recto and verso stop being meaningful.
- Turning it on late. Enabling it after you have checked proofs shifts roughly half your chapter openings and repaginates everything after them.
FAQ
Q: Does chapter one have to start on a right-hand page? A: Yes. That one is genuinely conventional across all sources: the main text begins on a recto.
Q: Is it wrong to let chapters start on a left-hand page? A: No. New Hart's Rules says chapters are "usually allowed to begin on either", and both Princeton University Press and Amazon describe the same practice.
Q: How many extra pages does forcing recto starts add? A: Roughly one blank page for every two chapters, since about half of chapters will end on a recto. A thirty-chapter novel gains something near fifteen pages.
Q: Do the blank pages get numbered? A: They are counted but the number is not printed, which is the same treatment given to several front matter pages.
Q: Does this matter for an ebook? A: No. There are no fixed pages in a reflowable file, so the setting has no meaning there.