The author, Kurt Vonnegut, chose a few unorthodox methods of writing Hocus Pocus.
Instead of using the more conventional method of writing on a typewriter, PC, or perhaps using good 'ol uniform pieces of paper, Vonnegut wrote the book in pencil on whatever scrap of paper he could find (from brown wrapping paper to the backs of business cards). There are lines in the book which separate where one scrap ended and the next began. The shorter the passage, the smaller the scrap.
He did number the pages sequentially so that the editor knew what went where. He also started certain words in capital letters, which any grammar-respecting editor would have immediately put in lowercase.
There are several tombstones in the book which feature words on them (for example: OK, I admit it. It really was a whorehouse). The author originally drew them himself, but they didn't transfer well onto a printed page, and had to be typeset instead.
It must have been the editor's (not to mention the publisher's) nightmare to see so many "creative liberties" in this book. The editor himself sums it up the best: "To virtually all of his idiosyncrasies I, after much thought, have applied what another author once told me was the most sacred word in a great editor's vocabulary. That word is 'stet'."