How to Identify a First Edition Book

If you are a book collector, it is essential that you know how to differentiate a true first edition from other editions. True first editions represent the very first publication of an author's story in book form. Many book sellers, especially on eBay and other Internet auction houses, will often advertise books as first editions when they are actually later editions or book club releases, sometimes done knowingly in hopes of the book selling for more than it is worth, and sometimes because they don't know how to determine a first edition themselves. So it is very important when buying first edition books online to ask the right questions before placing a bid. But before you can ask the right questions, you need to know what those questions are.

Usually two questions will be enough, but sometimes a few more are necessary and you might even need to do a little research first before asking them. The two questions that can be copied right from this article and pasted into your inquiry and will suffice for most books published during the past 25 years are:

"What is the printed price on the dust jacket? Is the number line on the copyright page complete and including the number 1?"

However, other questions might be:

"Who published the book? What year was the book published? Is there any damage to the book or any rips, tears, or excessive shelf wear to the dust cover? Is there any writing in the book such as a previous owner's name (PON), dates, or messages?"

There are many factors that will bring down the value of a book, even if it is a true first edition. In fact, amazingly enough, 90% of the value of a true first edition book lies in the condition of the dust jacket (or the cover and spine if it is a paperback original [PBO]) and not in the book itself.

The first question about the price on the dust jacket separates the publishers' editions from the book club editions. This is one of the biggest areas of concern when buying books online. Unfortunately, book clubs are allowed to duplicate a first edition book all the way down to the information on the copyright page, word for word. In most cases, the only difference between the true first edition and the book club edition is the price on the dust jacket. Book club editions (BCE) are mass produced or printed on demand and sent out as a book of the month offer or when a member of the club orders it via catalogue listings. So the book may have been written ten or twenty years ago but the BCE may have been printed the day after you place your order and still look exactly like the original publisher's first edition. However, they never, I repeat, NEVER, have a price on the dust jacket. The publisher, on the other hand, may have only printed a few thousand true first editions, making them much rarer and a lot more valuable than a BCE. So once you have established that there is a price on the dust jacket, you know you are at least dealing with the publisher's book and not a BCE. BCE's are also smaller in dimensions, but this is not always the case and it is also harder to tell the actual size from an image online.

The next question concerns the number line on the copyright page. Different publishers deal with this in different ways and some do not use a number line at all. Most major publishing houses do use a number line, however, to determine how many printings a particular book has had. It will appear somewhere on the copyright page which follows the initial title page. Some publishers use "10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1", some will appear as "2 4 6 8 10 9 7 5 3 1", but the most important part is the presence of the number "1". This indicates that the book is a "first printing" of the first edition. If it is a second printing, you might see "2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10". If it is a copy of "The Hobbit" you are looking at, the number line might even read something like "99 100 102 103 104" indicating that this book is in its 99th reprint from that publisher. These numbers only began appearing regularly in the early 1980's so other methods for determining first editions are necessary for earlier publications. And Random House only started using the number "1" in their number line in 2002. Prior to that, Random House printed there number line as "2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10" with a stated "FIRST EDITION" above the number line. In 2002, after a large outcry from confused Stephen King collectors after their release of "Black House" co-authored with Peter Straub, Random House began adding the "1" to their number line on first editions.

The stated "First Edition" on the copyright page is another method a few publishers use to determine first editions, and is also commonly misinterpreted by sellers. Some books, whether a first edition or not, print the date of the first edition on the copyright page. It will usually appear like:

"First edition-December 1998".

This is NOT stating that the book you are looking at is a first edition. It is merely telling you when the first edition was published by that publisher. There will also be a copyright date on the page, telling what year the story was copyrighted. But a true first edition from a publisher that uses the "Stated First Edition" method as opposed to the number line method (and some publishers use both) will not have a date next to the declaration. It will merely appear as:

"First Edition" or "First Trade Edition" or "First American Edition".

There will be no dates following the declaration. Sometimes it will be spelled out in all capital letters, sometimes in lower case, but always on a line of its own, all by itself. No dates and no other information will appear on a line declaring that particular book as a first edition.

Usually with the information above confirmed, you know you are looking at a first edition. At least a first edition from that particular publisher. It doesn't mean, however, that is the true first edition. The paperback, for example, that comes out a year after the hardback will also have a number line that begins with the number "1". If an author changes publishers and the new publisher wants to re-release an old book by the author, it will also have the full number line because it is the first edition 'printed by that particular publisher,' not because it was the first time the story was printed. The date the book was originally copyrighted is usually in the first line on the copyright page and no dates later than that should appear anywhere else on the entire page.

This is where knowing who the author's story was originally published by can come in handy. Usually a visit to the author's official web site will provide this information, but if not, authors are not like rock stars or famous celebrities in the sense that most of them actually answer their emails. I have written to many over the years asking questions like, "Was this book a paperback original or was there a hardback published first?" and "Who did you use to first publish your book?" and they have all responded, though sometimes that response may take a week or two to arrive.

Finally, you need to take note of the condition of the book. A first edition of "Carrie" by Stephen King, for example, in excellent condition, is valued at more than $800 and often sells for higher than that at online auction houses. There were only 30,000 first editions printed by Doubleday Publishing. But if the dust jacket has a small rip in it or some of the color on it is torn away by a sticker that had been removed at some point, its value drops considerably. If there is any writing in ink inside the book such as a PON, the value may drop a hundred dollars or so. The spine should be straight, without a lean to it, and the pages still firmly attached. If the dust jacket is worn and in bad shape then the value could be cut in half. Without the dust jacket, the same book's value would be closer to $30 than $800. So if you are a collector, it is also very important to know the exact condition of the book.

Sellers in auction houses often use people's lack of knowledge about how to determine first editions as a way to sell their books for more than they are actually worth. And many times, the sellers themselves are unaware, advertising it as a first edition when it is not. Asking the right questions before you bid will help insure that you never pay first edition prices for non-first edition books.