Investing in First Edition books.

What is a first edition of a book? Generally speaking the first edition is the first version of a book, which was first printed copy of a written work.

Why do people collect books?

One of the reasons lies in an emotional attachment to the favourite book of a person’s childhood. They just have to have their favourite book in their collection and will go to any reasonable financial length to invest in it. Very often after this, they just can’t stop collecting. They may later sell those books to find more lucrative purchases. Rare books can be very pricey, sufficiently so, that only wealthy people can afford buying them.

For example an inscribed first edition of “Harry Potter and The Philosopher’s Stone” was sold in 2017 by Bonhams for £106 250, followed in 2019 by Sotheby’s sale of another first edition of this book for £81 250.

A serious collector will look for the first editions because it will give them the best proximity to the source, when the book first appeared in its original state, art and typos.

As an example, the first edition of the third book of J.K Rowling “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” is now very popular with the collectors as its first 2500 copies carry  a mistakenly printed full first name of the author as Joanne Rowling instead of J. K. Rowling and can fetch thousands of pounds.

We call the first edition book when it first appears on the shelves of book shops but before this happens it goes through a number of republication versions. They would have to go through a number of early printings, being wrapped in an unprepossessing way, for book reviews. They are not intended for re-sale. These advanced review copies may penetrate into the used and rare book shops. Due to the lack of presentation values and physical attractiveness they won’t be much appreciated for being the one unique form of the book.

You will probably guess that the very first and earliest form of the book would be the author’s original manuscript. They can by typed on a typewriter or hand written. Surprisingly enough book collectors would not necessary appreciate this “virgin” form of a new book and sometimes would seek to commission a nicely looking clam shell box to house the manuscript for display purposes only. Only true connoisseur book collectors may appreciate a true value of such items. They like books to look presentable on their shelves. Books for them should, preferably, convey their values in a visual form, too.

In our modern world books are often published in different countries around the world to be distributed in this specific country through special rights to print the first UK editions. Often they may even be released simultaneously. When a book has been first published in the country of its origin, then it becomes more precious for collectors, then its “foreign first edition twin”.  

An author also can  play a role in the way the books are collected. For example those authors who already have a proven market interest can have their books to be first released as a limited edition. This type of editions are designed for the book collectors and never read by their owners. The mainstream publishes for such books are The Franklin Library and the Easton Press. Then the books are first released to the general market they are usually called the First Trade Edition.

 If you come across a term describing a book as a “First Edition, Second Printing” you should know that it is a later printing of the first edition and is less collectable. Hence the value of the Second Printing is affected, and is not as high as the first edition print.

For example, The first edition, first printing of Hemingway’s books with dust jacket are worth more than £1,000. So, Hemingway’s fans with modest income, can acquire a Second printing for as little as £200-£300 depending on the book itself.

The first printing of the subsequent releases is referred to as First thus. Their prices are significantly lower than of those books for the first printing and range within hundreds of pounds only. Seasoned book collectors would look for the first edition of their favourite book as other collectors would look at the First Edition as an investment.

Choosing a book – what to look for?

When choosing a book one should look for the following parameters:

• Condition : clean, unmarked
• Should have a dust jacket
• Signatures or inscriptions
• Use reputable dealers when possible

Other advice from experts: if you have a valuable book at home, don’t forget to insure it, keep it safe in secure storage, in dry place, away from the direct sun light.

Some books become popular because they were turned into movies, especially if a film was successful. If the film produced on the basis of a well-known novel, was a disaster, the book’s first edition will suffer too and won’t fetch a good deal of money. For example, in 2017,  prices for P. Pullman’s book “The Golden Compass”  went up in price in anticipation of a successful film release but dropped after the film’s poor reception.

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