Where to find the edition of a book
AbeBooks Explains how to Identify a First Edition Book
hi my name is Richard from a books and
today I'm going to talk to you about
identifying the first edition of a book
a first edition is the first appearance
of a title by a specific publisher now
there are many publishers and they all
use different methods of defining a
first edition and those methods often
change if you're a collector you're
interested in obtaining the true first
edition that's the first the original
printing of a book you might be lucky
and the publisher may actually state the
words first edition or first printing on
the copyright page that's the page
containing all the bibliographical data
another common method of identification
is the number line that's a line of
numbers found on a copyright page if
there is a one in the sequence of
numbers that usually indicates that it's
a first edition the line sequence could
ascend or descend will have no
discernable order depending on the
publisher all of these number lines here
are first editions sometimes the number
line is also accompanied by the words
first edition but be careful because
some publishers leave on the words first
edition even when the book is in its
third printing and that fact is
reflected in the three in this number
line this number line indicates a second
printing from 1975 some publishers make
no statement at all about first editions
but booksellers learn to identify first
by other means there might be a defining
line of text on the dust jacket or
perhaps the line of text within the main
body of the book has been corrected in
later editions many book club editions
can look very similar to true first
editions and actually state first
edition or have a complete number line
but if there is no price on the dust
jacket then that's a sign of a book club
edition and it's not a first when you
see a bookseller using the words first
fuss this does not indicate a true first
edition it means the book may be the
first edition of something new a revised
edition a paperback or a new version of
the book published by a completely
different publisher eight books itself
is a great resource for learning about
first editions search for a first
edition and then refine your results to
most
so first you should also obtain a guide
to first editions we recommend build
McBride's pocket guide to the
identification of first editions and
also the latest edition of collected
books a guide to identification and
values by Allen and Patricia Ahern
bibliographies are also going to be
essential especially if you're
collecting the works of a specific
author and that is a very brief guide to
identifying first editions
you
