What do three asterisks mean on a book page?

I've been reading the "Stephanie Plum" novels my Janet Evanovich. She puts random sets of three asterisks at the top or bottom of each page. What's that mean?

What do three asterisks mean on a book page?
I love stephanie plum books! they are great. The *** means she is jumping from one scene to another, like when she is at her apartment, then it takes her to her parent's house. Kinda like they do in movies. I'm in book 5 right now, my mom has all the books until 12, shes waiting until it comes out in softback, I'm gonna keep reading until then.
Reply:Some authors use *** to signify jumps from one place or thought in a chapter to another, such as in the first part of the chapter they hero is talking to his sidekick in the forest and then after a couple of paragraphs the chapter jumps to the heroine battling the villian on top of the mountain. They use the *** instead of starting a new chapter and also because they don't know where on the page this split is going to happen when it is printed by the publisher so the *** helps to make the split easier to see for the reader.
Reply:I have never read Evanovich so I can't say in her case but often footnotes will be symbolized by an asterisk. A footnote with 3 of them might signify that it's the third footnote of that particular page.
Reply:If the story changes in the middle of the page, there is a space so you can tell that a transition is happening in the story. The asterisks are put in if the transition occurs at the end of a page, so you don't read on and think that you are reading about the last character, for example, and become confused.