So I have this book. I assume it is a first edition, but I don’t know if that makes any difference to anything.
Under CIP data it says, among other things, “1st ed.”
But then, at the bottom of the CIP page it says
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
August 2004
5 7 9 10 8 6 4
The book is Jeff Lindsay’s Darkly Dreaming Dexter, just in case that matters.
It is in perfect condition and the dust jacket is in perfect condition. I got it as a review copy before its drop date, making me think at the time that was the ONLY edition, but I could be wrong.
So you could have a a first edition, third pressing just as an example.
For famous books, the changes or corrections made between editions or pressings are documented. A book expert on Pawn Stars authenticated a copy of Don Quixote by checking the wording on a specific page and paragraph. It contained a known error and proved it was the earlier pressing of a first edition. That error was corrected in later pressing and editions.
This article has some info that answers your question. There’s some really good examples in there of title pages and numbering.
Aceplace57 got it right (although “3rd printing” is the standard terminology in the U.S., rather than “3rd pressing”).
Generally, the difference between an “edition” and a “printing” is whether anything was changed.
For example, let’s say the book is set up, printing plates created, and 10,000 copies run off the presses. Those are 1st/1st (first edition, first printing). If no changes are made, but they run out of books, they’ll fire up the presses again with the same plates, except that the little “1” will be scratched off the numberline on the copyright page. If they run off another 10,000 copies, those will be 1st ed, 2nd printing.
Then, if they decide to add a new forward or correct some errors, they’ll make new plates with those changes, and do the 1st printing of the 2nd edition.
I know I could very well be wrong, but I thought first editions’ library of congress numbers were always in order, usually ascending.
Heck, I’m not even sure if that’s what the number under the date is really called.
Just something I heard…
Well, now I am even more confused than I was earlier. Except I do think, if I was going to sell this book on eBay, that I could legitimately call it a first edition. All this talk about whether things are True Firsts–it’s even more complicated than I thought.
I am pretty sure though that LCCN is just the Library of Congress cataloging number, which essentially tells where in the LC you can find the copies of the book, and has nothing to do with if it’s a first. If there’s a hardcover and a paperback by the same publisher, I’m not even sure the publisher would bother doing a separate LC filing for the paperback. (The publisher I work for sure wouldn’t.)
(In case anyone is wondering, most of the books I work on here are first editions, but we don’t put all those numbers on the CIP page because nobody cares, and if it’s a second edition we say so right on the cover.)
I’d include a scan of the Title Page on the ebay listing. That way collectors can decide for themselves if it’s an edition they want.
I bought a couple first edition Hardy Boys from around 1927 about 15 years ago. They had a distinctive red binding. The binding changed in the next edition. I also bought several early printings of the Hardy Boys from the thirties (they weren’t first editions, but close). Hardy Boys books were heavily revised several times to keep them up to date for kids. It’s fun reading the original versions from the 1930’s.
I also bought a few Dick Francis first editions from the original British Publisher. Several were library copies, but they were first editions. May not ever be worth a fortune, but I enjoy having them.
Forgot to say, that sample auction includes pictures of the title page and a closeup of the copyright. It’s a good example of how a collectible book should be advertised on Ebay.
I wouldn’t bid on a book unless it included that information.
Wait… is it a first edition or is it a reviewer’s copy? Publishers often send out copies to reviewers that may not include final edits, artwork, etc. Those are sometimes, but not always, stamped as such.
And as an aside, is there really a significant market for first editions of recently published books? Not a collector of such, so I’m curious.
The generalization is that collectors want first editions, period. Whether they want any particular book at all is a different question, but if they do they probably want it as a first edition. (Which means first printing. Anybody who tries to sell you a later printing as a true first is a fraud. Beware.)
The more interesting question is whether recent authors are collectible. Yes, certainly some are. The vast majority aren’t, but there is a maniacal audience for Stephen King and Terry Pratchett and Dean Koontz and bunches of others.
Many older books are either impossible to find to first editions or way too expensive that way for most ordinary collectors. In that case, later editions or printings may be acceptable. A later printing may have a dust jacket that is impossible to find on a true first.
And a few obsessives want every variation, including every printing.
Book collecting is so huge and varied that you can say anything and have it be true for someone.
Reviewer generally get bound galleys (also called uncorrected proofs), not the finished book. This gives them time to read them before the publication date and also allows for lead time for a publication. I have never seen one without a clear notice on the cover, so that reviewers wont complain about possible errors that will be corrected in the final version.
No one would mistake them for a first edition, nor for any published edition. Nowadays, they look like cheap POD vanity press books in quality.
I understand the interest in a first edition of King’s “Carrie”, for example, but the Dexter book the OP mentions is six or seven years old. Wouldn’t it be likely that first editions are still available in bookstores?
The length of time books stay at bookstores these days is no more than a few months, except for bestsellers. And bestsellers would be on a later printing if they stayed for a year. The mainstream publishing industry puts out 50,000 titles a year. No physical bookstore stocks them all. Turnover is rapid. New stuff always sells better than old stuff, on average.
The OP’s book was made into a television show, hence the collectible nature of it. It’s unimaginable that you’d find a first edition, first printing in any bookstore today. (Later printings are possible, though.) I’d give pretty good odds that you wouldn’t find any first edition, first printings of any 2004 hardback in a bookstore, although sometimes smaller stores keep things on shelves longer, and a few specialty items might get reordered but never reprinted.
So the takeaway for a profit-oriented collector is that you want to buy first/firsts whenever you find them in hopes that they will become collectable & valuable some day.
Some titles will; most won’t. But to make any gain at all you’ve got to have bought the first/first while it was available.
Just adding to what Exapno said: most modern first editions sell on the used market for less than their original retail price. The valuable ones tend to be the first print edition of the first book published by an author who has subsequently become famous. Generally speaking that’s because the first ed of their first book was a much smaller print run than their later books.
A first edition of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, for example, usually sells for upwards of $10,000. That’s because only 500 were printed. First editions of Rowling’s later books (printed by the millions) can be yours for $5.
There are exceptions of course for certain authors and notable books.
If that worked, every bookstore owner would be rich. It’s such a tiny percentage of books that become valuable that your expected return would be well in the negative.
Yeah. I wasn’t suggesting this was a viable investment plan.
My point was merely that *if *you ever did buy a book by an up and coming author, you’d have little or no expectation of profit *unless *it was a first/first. IOW, don’t buy first/seconds or later and expect to reap the rewards you read about in the papers sometimes (e.g. your $10K Harry Potter edition)