 |
| |
The
terms first edition and first printing are often used more
or less interchangeably in the book world, and really shouldn't be. A printing
is a single print run. An edition refers to the whole set of plates.
When any significant corrections or amendments are made to the original
plates, then you have a second edition. If a dozen separate printings are
made off the first set of plates, though, only those copies from the very
first printing are of significant value--and this is true, generally speaking,
even of highly collectible books. You may have the twelfth printing of the
first edition, but that doesn't mean you have a "true first".
Almost always, it is only the very first printing that has collectible value,
and that really counts as a "first edition". The agreeable term first printing, however, can also be found occasionally in a modern book club edition, in which case the book club will have just ordered some immense number of copies right off the first print run.
|
| Home | Register | Site Map | About Us | Search |
Oh no! Note this worrying message from the Book-of-the-Month-Club! It
may mean that this is a book club edition, printed in the zillions and therefore
utterly without value; or it may mean that Mr. Jones was fortunate enough
to have secured an agreement with the Book-of-the-Month Club (or BOMC, as
we book collectors like to say) in advance of the original trade publication
of his novel. In these cases, you must check out the dustjacket, if present.
Book club editions, commonly, do not have a price on the inner flaps of
the dustjacket. But our copy has the price… a good sign!